Russia said on Thursday that nuclear arms control talks with the United States were impossible without taking into account the situation in Ukraine, accusing Washington of trying to impose its military dominance, Reuters reported.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov explained at a press conference that Washington had proposed separating the two issues and resuming discussions on “strategic stability” between the two countries, which have the world’s largest nuclear arsenals.

Lavrov emphasized that this proposal is unacceptable for Russia because of the West’s support for Ukraine in the war, which has been going on for almost two years.

He made the remarks as the New Start agreement, the latest Russian-American bilateral nuclear arms control agreement, expires in February 2026 and tensions between the two nuclear superpowers have reached their highest level since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

“We do not see the slightest interest on the part of the US or NATO to settle the Ukrainian conflict and listen to Russia’s concerns,” added the head of Russian diplomacy on Thursday.

He accused the West of pushing Ukraine to use increasingly long-range weapons to strike deeper at Russia. Such attacks have intensified in recent weeks; On December 30, 25 people were killed in the southern Russian city of Belgorod during one such attack.

Sergei Lavrov did not provide any evidence to support his claim that the West was encouraging Ukraine to carry out such attacks, but he accused the United States of seeking military superiority over Russia, Reuters noted.

The Russian minister insisted that arms control talks were unfounded while the West was waging what he called a “hybrid war” against Moscow.

“We do not reject this idea in the future, but we condition this possibility in advance so that the West abandons its policy of undermining and disregarding Russia’s interests,” Lavrov concluded.

The Russian Federation, the heir to the Soviet nuclear power, is estimated by experts to have the world’s largest arsenal of nuclear weapons, numbering nearly 6,000 warheads. Together, the US and Russia possess approximately 90% of the world’s nuclear warheads, enough to destroy the planet several times over.