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US stops sharing information with Russia on nuclear weapons

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The U.S. announced on June 1 that it has stopped sharing some key information on nuclear weapons with Russia due to Moscow's unilateral suspension of the New START Treaty.

Washington took this step as a countermeasure to what it called an illegal violation of the nuclear arms treaty, the State Department said in a fact sheet published online.

According to the fact sheet, the U.S. will no longer facilitate inspections or provide information on the location, status, and launches of its intercontinental and submarine-launched ballistic missiles.

New START, signed by the two countries in 2010, set a 1,550 limit on the number of nuclear warheads and a total limit of 700 on intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM), and heavy bombers for each party.

The treaty also stipulated mutual monitoring and inspections of nuclear arsenals.

While Russia has no formally withdrawn from the treaty, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin on Feb. 28 suspended his country's participation, saying it would "not allow" the U.S. or NATO countries to inspect its nuclear arsenal.

"With today's decision on New START, the whole arms control architecture has been dismantled," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said regarding Putin’s decision.

Russia tries to conceal its dwindling nuclear stockpile
The main rule of Russia’s power diplomacy says: If something goes wrong with their war effort in Ukraine, reach for the nuclear intimidation card. That’s what the Kremlin did two months ago, when Vladimir Putin announced Russia would “suspend” its participation in the New START, the only remaining…
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Martin Fornusek

Senior News Editor

Martin Fornusek is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. He has previously worked as a news content editor at the media company Newsmatics and is a contributor to Euromaidan Press. He was also volunteering as an editor and translator at the Czech-language version of Ukraïner. Martin studied at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia, holding a bachelor's degree in security studies and history and a master's degree in conflict and democracy studies.

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