Kremlin urges Trump to resume nuclear disarmament talks 'as soon as possible'

The Kremlin said Friday it wanted to resume nuclear disarmament talks with US President Donald Trump's administration "as soon as possible", after tensions over the Ukraine conflict left negotiations at an impasse.

Moscow pulled out of the last remaining arms control agreement with Washington, called "New START", in 2023 amid a sharp deterioration in relations between the two countries.

Both have indicated they will unilaterally adhere to the warhead limits outlined in the treaty until 2026, but they are yet to agree on a replacement and talks have stalled for months.

"We are interested in starting this negotiation process as soon as possible," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

"The ball is in the Americans' court, who have stopped all substantive contacts."

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ramped up his nuclear rhetoric since sending troops into Ukraine in February 2022, signing a decree last year lowering the threshold for using nuclear weapons.

New START restricted the former Cold War rivals to a maximum of 1,550 deployed warheads each.

In 2019 the two powers withdrew from the landmark 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty concluded by then-US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, which limited the use of medium-range missiles, both conventional and nuclear.