After US-Russia nuclear treaty expires, Moscow says open to diplomacy but…

A crucial treaty between the US and Russia — called New STAR — ended on Wednesday. Introduced in 2010, the treaty limited the size of the Russian and American strategic nuclear arsenals. It also defined ceilings on the deployment of land- and submarine-based missiles and bombers to transfer nuclear warheads.

Neither side has held talks for a new arrangement to replace it.

Moscow has said that it is open to diplomacy but also remains ready to take “decisve military-technical measures” to counter any potential additional threat to its national security, while remaining open to seeking “politico-diplomatic ways to comprehensively stabilise the strategic situation on the basis of equal and mutually beneficial dialogue solutions”, if appropriate conditions materialise.

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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reportedly described the expiration of the New START treaty a “grave moment” for international peace and security, urging Russia and the US to negotiate a new nuclear arms control framework immediately.

“On February 5, 2026, the life cycle of the Russian-US Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (#NewSTART) comes to an end; it was signed by the Parties on April 8, 2010, entered into force on February 5, 2011, and was extended for a five-year period in February 2021 on the basis of a relevant one-time option provided for in this agreement,” read a Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia statement.

Here are key things to know about the New START treaty:

• The treaty came into being in 2010 and defined clear ceilings on the number of strategic nuclear warheads that both sides could deploy.
• In February 2023, the Russian Federation suspended the New START Treaty against what it described as an unsatisfactory state of affairs with the implementation of certain aspects of the treaty.
• It also alleged that the US took unacceptable steps that were against the essence of the agreement.
• Experts criticised verification weaknesses, missile defence limits, inadequate modernisation funds and failure to address non-nuclear threats, with some of them also highlighting Russia’s non-compliance history.

“It was a compelled measure and an inevitable response of the Russian side to the extremely hostile policy of the Biden administration which resulted in the fundamental change in the security situation, as well as to a number of illegitimate steps taken by Washington in the context of specific provisions of the New START Treaty, which together constituted a material breach incompatible with the Treaty being further implemented in a full-fledged manner,” stated the Russian ministry.

It also mentioned that on September 22, 2025, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed that New START Treaty parties commit to voluntary self-limitations to keep the quantitative ceilings on the relevant weapons specified for at least one year after the termination of the agreement. However, it noted that, Russia received no formal official response from the US in this regard.

“In the current circumstances, we assume that the parties to the New START are no longer bound by any obligations or symmetrical declarations in the context of the Treaty, including its core provisions, and are in principle free to choose their next steps. In doing so the Russian Federation intends to act responsibly and in a balanced manner, developing its policy in the field of strategic offensive arms on the basis of a thorough analysis of the US military policy and the overall situation in the strategic sphere,” it added.