Ties with U.S. in a deadlock, Russian says

MOSCOW — Russia-u.s. relations are in a state of “unprecedented crisis” without any sign of improvement, a Russian diplomat said Thursday.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov argued that the White House’s emphasis on increasing weapons supplies to Ukraine to ensure Russia’s defeat leaves no room for diplomacy.

“I don’t see any prospect for a productive political and diplomatic process,” Ryabkov said at a briefing. “We have a very deep and unprecedented crisis in Russia-u.s. relations. The Biden administration has driven them into a deadlock.”

Ryabkov warned that the U.S. and its allies must assess the risks stemming from supplying more powerful Western weapons to Ukraine.

“The Americans need to thoroughly and deeply weigh the risks linked to their unabashedly cavalier course,” he said.

Ryabkov noted that Moscow doesn’t trust Western statements about self-imposed restrictions on a range of weapons supplied to Ukraine to avoid escalation, adding that such assurances in the past have served as cover for a steady expansion of the assortment of arms deliveries.

“We don’t see any sign of reason in any of the NATO and EU members’ capitals,” Ryabkov said. “What they are doing isn’t going to strengthen their security.”

He rejected the U.S. argument that Russia’s refusal to allow the resumption of inspections of its nuclear facilities represents a breach of the New START treaty, the last remaining nuclear arms control pact between the two countries.

The New START treaty, signed in 2010 by President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers. The agreement envisages sweeping on-site inspections to verify compliance.