Russia suspends only remaining major nuclear treaty with US

sense. In fact, he called it laughable that there could be an arms treaty between Russia and the United States carrying on as normal as it's meant to until 2026. So what he's done is he suspended what's called the new start treaty. It's the only remaining arms treaty between the U.S. and Russia. What it does is limits the number of nuclear warheads that can be deployed at

any one time to 1,550. It's meant to prevent some kind of nuclear arms race with the U.S. and Russia both certainly right now, not trusting each other, developing nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons and nuclear systems that could make the other very nervous. It's something the U.S., China, Russia, the United Nations, NATO, at one point all supported. The Russian President says it no longer makes sense to have

it. Now, there's no imminent chance at least expressed by the Russian President that he's immediately going to start increasing the number of deployed nuclear warheads. It's something that the parliament says it's going to look into, but it does show just how seriously Vladimir Putin is taking this. And to the Blinken, the Secretary of State, he's described it as deeply unfortunate and irresponsible. He said that the

U.S. is going to be watching very carefully and will make sure the security of the U.S. and that of its allies is protected. He did also leave room for negotiation to take place if that seems like something President Putin wants. But for now, it's a big signal to the U.S. to stop it, trying to stay involved in Ukraine as it has done with weapons, supplies and

political support so far. As it was all limited when it comes to the war in Ukraine, how did President Putin justify what he is calling the special military operation in the country? How is he framing it? Well, if anyone's been following this for the past year, for any length of time, you'd have some very familiar arguments. There is, of course, the one that looks simply at

the east of Ukraine and attempt by Russia to protect the Russian speakers in the Donbass region. But there's a broader issue. The President reminded of people watching, which is that he believes Ukraine is run by the O'Nourseh government. He also suggested there were American bio-lab weapons in Ukraine, also the potential for Ukraine to develop nuclear weapons. Then he also said that Ukrainians in the east of

the country were effectively being returned to their native homeland. There's a huge list of reasons the President has given and repeated again for embarking on this fight. But the main point he was making today seemed to be that he wants people to believe it was a defensive special military operation that NATO had planned some kind of conflict. Russia was merely defending itself when it launched its

so-called special military operation last February. And he thanked everyone involved and said there will be support issued to veterans and those fighting in Ukraine as long as this takes, of course, as ever. He didn't put any timeline on when it might end. All right, Stuart Smith reporting under difficult conditions in Russia given the government restrictions regarding Ukraine. Please do stay safe.