U.S. ‘On the Verge’ of War With Russia—Deputy Foreign Minister
By Brendan Cole On 1/30/23 at 2:56 AM EST
Sergei Ryabkov, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, has said the U.S. risks a “direct confrontation” with Moscow over Ukraine, suggesting that a nuclear arms control treatymay not be renewed.
Ryabkov made the comments during an interview with the RIA news agency when asked about the prospect of resuming inspections under the new START treaty. The treaty expires in 2026 but inspections were called off in November 2022 as the war in Ukraine raged.
He said that the treaty aimed to strengthen strategic relations based on “mutual trust” and the principle of security. However, these provisions have been “violated in the most rough and cynical way by American actions at resolving the so-called ‘Russian question’ through aggressive containment.”
Ryabkov said this meant that we are “on the verge of a direct collision between the U.S. and NATO with Russia.” He described as a “very possible scenario” that there may be no arms control treaty with the U.S. after 2026.Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov in Moscow on March 15, 2022. In an interview published on January 30, 2023, he told RIA news agency about the prospect there would be no renewal of the START nuclear weapons treaty with the U.S.MAXIM SHEMETOV/Getty Images
“We are ready for such a scenario,” he said, insisting that the ending of the treaty “is not our choice and it would be optimal to move on a different path.”
The deal, signed in 2010, limits the strategic warheads and launchers in the arsenals of the two top nuclear powers and lets them to inspect one another’s stockpiles.
When contacted by Newsweek for comment, a U.S. State Department spokesperson said: “We are in the process of completing our congressionally-mandated annual assessment of Russian compliance with the New START Treaty, as we do every year.”
The spokesperson said that the provision of Abrams tanks showed that the U.S. was “committed to getting Ukraine what it needs as it defends itself from Russia’s brutal and barbaric war, for as long as it takes.”
With the new U.S. ambassador to Moscow, Lynn Tracy, taking up her post, Ryabkov said that the relations between the countries “have been brought to this dead-end by Washington’s anti-Russian line, which has become tougher year on year.”
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Ryabkov’s interview followed the announcement by the U.S. last week it would provide Ukraine with Abrams tanks as part of a Western package to fight Russian aggression.
Ryabkov said there was “no doubt that this is an extremely destructive step” that pointed to a “pronounced escalation” in Ukraine.
“Paradoxically, U.S. officials are arguing that delivering a wider range of increasingly advanced systems, including heavy systems to Ukraine, is not an escalation.”
He said the international community was becoming more concerned about where “irresponsible” western politicians were “pushing the world.
Ryabkov also said that the negotiation process about Ukraine’s Russia-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant “is not progressing easily” amid consultations with the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] about creating a safety zone around the site.
Meanwhile, he said that talks about prisoner swaps between Russia and the U.S. will “definitely continue.” Last month, American basketball star Brittney Griner, who had been arrested for bringing cannabis oil into the country, was freed in exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
Update 01/30/23, 03:30 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with further information.
Update 01/31/23, 04:30 a.m. ET: This article has been further updated with a U.S. State Department response.
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