Russia suspends US inspections of its nuclear weapons arsenal

Moscow blames Ukraine war sanctions for preventing mutual inspection of its nuclear arms under New Start treaty

Russia has suspended an arrangement that allowed US and Russian inspectors to visit each other's nuclear weapons sites under the 2010 New Start treaty, in a new blow to arms control.

Mutual inspections had been suspended as a health precaution since the start of the Covid pandemic, but a foreign ministry statement on Monday added another reason Russia is unwilling to restart them. It argued that US sanctions imposed because of the invasion of Ukraine stopped Russian inspectors travelling to the US.