Putin says Russia will halt participation in New Start nuclear arms treaty

Later, the Russian foreign ministry announced that Moscow would continue to abide by the limits set by the treaty and would also continue to exchange information with the US on planned launches of intercontinental and submarine-launched ballistic missiles under the 1988 Ballistic Missile Launch Notification Agreement.

US officials said the Biden administration had feared Putin might decide to withdraw Russia from the treaty altogether and no long recognise the agreed limits on the nuclear arsenal. The Russian foreign ministry had summoned the new US ambassador to Moscow, Lynne Tracy, for a meeting on Tuesday, saying it had an important announcement, prompting speculation of a full withdrawal.

The decision to suspend participation in the arms treaty would mark a new low in US-Russia relations and arms control, one of the few topics on which Moscow and Washington DC could find common ground.

He said Russia would resume testing of nuclear weapons if the US did the same, a serious escalation that could mean it was preparing to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

Withdrawing from New Start would theoretically allow Russia to end compliance with limits of deployed nuclear weapons and would stop meetings of the bilateral consultative commission, the implementing body of the treaty.

Those notifications include information on the numbers, locations and technical characteristics of weapons systems and facilities.