To retaliate for Moscow’s ongoing violations of the New START arms control deal, the US announced on Thursday that it will cease sending Russia certain notifications required under the treaty, including updates on missile and launcher locations.
The State Department said in a fact sheet on its website that it will also stop providing Russia with telemetry data – remotely obtained data on a missile’s flight – on launches of US intercontinental and submarine-launched ballistic missiles.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has not formally withdrawn from the Treaty on Strategic Nuclear Forces. On February 21, he announced that Russia will withdraw, jeopardizing the last pillar of US-Russian armaments control.
The State Department factsheet stated, “Beginning June 1, 2023, the United States is withholding from Russia notifications required under the treaty, including updates on the status or location of treaty-accountable items such as missiles and launchers”.
According to the report, Russia stopped sending these in late February.
The New START pact, signed in 2010 and set to expire in 2026, limits the amount of strategic nuclear warheads that countries can deploy. According to its rules, Moscow and Washington may only deploy 1,550 strategic nuclear warheads and 700 land and submarine-based missiles and bombers to deliver them.
According to a Biden administration source, the US will continue to adhere to the (treaty’s) central limits…and expect Russia to do the same.
The State Department stated that it continues to notify Russia of ICBM and SLBM launches in accordance with the 1988 Ballistic Missile Launch Notifications Agreement, as well as strategic exercises in accordance with a separate 1989 agreement.
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