Russia says it won't discuss new nuclear treaty with US in current form

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia will not discuss signing a new treaty with the United States to replace an agreement limiting each side's strategic nuclear weapons that expires in 2026 as it needs to be broadened and expanded to cover other states, the Kremlin said on Tuesday.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov made the comments when asked about the fate of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or New START, which is due to run out on Feb. 5, 2026.

The agreement caps the number of strategic nuclear warheads that the United States and Russia can deploy, and the deployment of land- and submarine-based missiles and bombers to deliver them. It is the last remaining pillar of nuclear arms control between the United States and Russia.

President Vladimir Putin in 2023 suspended Russian participation in the treaty due to U.S. support for Ukraine, though Moscow has kept to the warhead, missile and bomber limits imposed by the agreement - as has the United States.

Citing an unidentified senior Russian source, the Izvestia newspaper reported earlier on Tuesday that Russian would not sign a new treaty with the United States due to Washington's backing for Ukraine in the war.

Peskov, when asked about the Izvestia report, said it was broadly consistent with remarks made by Putin.

"Earlier this year, he (Putin) said that in view of the changed conditions, it is virtually impossible to discuss strategic offensive weapons, arsenals and so on, without taking into account the military nuclear infrastructure in Europe, without including European states in the negotiation process and without touching on other elements of strategic security, and that Russia will not do so," Peskov told reporters.

"We must take a sober look at the situation that has developed and, taking into account all the new aspects, organise the negotiation process. It seems to us that it would be at the very least unreasonable to insist on conducting such negotiations pretending that nothing has happened. Russia is not going to do that."

Russia and the United States together control 88% of the world's nuclear warheads. Putin said last week that Russia was updating its policy regarding nuclear weapons and extending the list of scenarios in which it might resort to using them.

(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov and Guy Faulconbridge; Writing by Andrew Osborn and Gleb Stolyarov; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)