Putin Backs Out of Last Nuclear Pact With the US

Vladimir Putin declared Tuesday that Russia is pulling out—at least temporarily—from the last standing nuclear arms control treaty with the US. In his annual state of the nation address, Putin announced that Moscow would suspend its participation in the New START pact, reports the BBC. "Our relations have degraded and that’s completely and utterly the US's fault,” Putin said, per the Washington Post.

• The treaty: The 2011 New START agreement limits Russia and the US to 1,550 deployed nuclear weapons, explains the New York Times. Think ICBMs. However, it does not cover "battlefield nukes," which is what the West is currently most worried about, writes David E. Sanger. Putin stressed he is only suspending the pact, which the US already had accused Moscow of violating. “They want to inflict a ‘strategic defeat’ on us and try to get to our nuclear facilities at the same time," said Putin.

• Blame game: Putin again attempted to blame Ukraine and Western "elites" for starting the war, calling it a plot to weaken Russia. “We aren’t fighting the Ukrainian people,” Putin said, per the AP. Ukraine “has become hostage of the Kyiv regime and its Western masters, which have effectively occupied the country.” He added that Russia had an obligation to "liquidate the neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv."
• Biden up next: Putin's address comes one day after President Biden visited Ukraine and hours before Biden gives a major address in Poland, reports the Wall Street Journal. Biden will once again affirm US support for Ukraine. But "we did not set the speech up as some kind of head-to-head,” said US national security adviser Jake Sullivan. “This is not a rhetorical contest with anyone else.”

(More Vladimir Putin stories.)