The risk of war between Russia and the United States, the powers with the world’s two largest nuclear arsenals, “is steadily rising,” a senior Russian diplomat said in an interview Tuesday with Russia’s state news agency TASS.

Vladimir Germakov, a foreign ministry spokesman in charge of nuclear nonproliferation, told the agency that he blames Washington for the way it treats Moscow.

Since the invasion of Ukraine 14 months ago, Moscow has frequently accused the US and what it calls the “collective West” of raising the risk of nuclear war.

If “the United States continues its current course of conflict with Russia, escalating the situation to the point of sliding into a direct armed conflict, then the fate of the new START (an agreement between two countries on nuclear weapons) may already be decided,” Mr. Yermakov explained. .

In March, the US informed Russia that it would stop sharing data on its nuclear forces with it after it itself refused to send the data, citing a reaction to Russia’s suspension of New START.

Mr. Yermakov did not elaborate on what he called the US confrontational approach, at least based on excerpts from his TASS interviews, which have aired so far.

“The most acute challenge today is related (…) to the risk of nuclear escalation due to direct military confrontation between nuclear powers,” said a senior Russian diplomat. “And this danger, to my deep regret, is steadily increasing,” he insisted.

In addition, Moscow and Beijing will explore the possible involvement of other Western countries in expanding US missile defense on a global scale, which “obviously undermines strategic stability,” Mr. Yermakov added.

Source: RES-IPE