Joe Biden calls Putin's suspension of arms treaty with US a 'mistake'

Joe Biden. Pic/AFP

President Joe Biden said Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin made a "mistake" by suspending his country's participation in the the last remaining US-Russia nuclear arms control treaty.

In his first comments since Putin's announcement Tuesday, Biden, who is in Poland to meet with NATO's eastern flank allies, condemned the Russian decision to pull back from the treaty, known as New START.

In his state-of-the-nation address to the Russian people, Putin said Russia was withdrawing from the treaty because of US support to Ukraine, and he accused the US and its NATO allies of openly working for Russia's destruction.

The decision to suspend Russian cooperation with the treaty's nuclear warhead and missile inspections follows Moscow's cancellation late last year of talks that had been intended to salvage an agreement that both sides have accused the other of violating.

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The so-called New START Treaty was signed by Russia and the U.S. in 2010. It caps the number of long-range nuclear warheads they can deploy and limits the use of missiles that can carry atomic weapons.

It 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.

Russia has the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world, with close to 6,000 warheads, according to experts.

Together, Russia and the United States hold around 90% of the world's nuclear warheads - enough to destroy the planet many times over.

(Compiled with inputs from AP)