Risks of a military confrontation between Russia and the United States growing
The risks of a direct military confrontation between the two nuclear powers, Russia and the United States, are steadily increasing, the TASS news agency reports, citing a senior Russian diplomat, Agerpres.ro reports.
Vladimir Yermakov, director of the Moscow Foreign Ministry's nuclear non-proliferation department, said Washington was intensifying these risks through its behaviour towards Moscow.
Since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has regularly blamed the US and what it calls the "collective West" for increasing the risks of nuclear war, rhetoric designed to deter Kiev's allies.
"If the United States continues to pursue its current course of confrontation with Russia, with the stakes steadily rising on the verge of sliding into direct armed conflict, then the fate of START (the nuclear weapons treaty) may be a foregone conclusion," Yermakov said.
The US told Russia in March that it would stop sharing data on its nuclear forces after Moscow refused to do so in response to Russia's suspension of participation in the New START treaty.
Yermakov did not provide details of the alleged confrontational US approach in excerpts of the TASS interview released to the public.
Moscow and Beijing will assess the West's potential involvement in the global expansion of the US anti-missile system, which "clearly undermines strategic stability", he added.
