MOSCOW, February 26. /TASS/. Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev noted that sanctions may serve as an excuse to interrupt dialogue on strategic stability and to exit the Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (the New START Treaty).
"There is also good news. The sanctions may become a wonderful excuse to finally review all ties with those states that introduced them," he wrote on his official VKontakte page.
"Among other things, in order to interrupt dialogue on strategic stability. Actually, it is possible to renounce anything, including the New Start Treaty that I concluded with [Barack] Obama and V.V. Putin extended with the current US leader," Medvedev added.
Russia and the US signed the New START Treaty in 2010. On February 3, 2021, the Russian foreign ministry and the US embassy exchanged notes on the completion of domestic procedures to enforce the New START five-year extension agreement.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address on Thursday morning that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation in order to protect people "who have been suffering from abuse and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years." The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories.
Russia’s Defense Ministry reported later on Thursday that Russian troops were not delivering strikes against Ukrainian cities. It emphasized that Ukrainian military infrastructure was being destroyed by precision weapons.
A number of countries announced severe sanctions against Russia. The EU introduced financial and technological sectoral restrictions against Russia’s 64 key structures, including the presidential administration, the Defense Ministry, the Foreign Intelligence Service and other state organizations as well as companies in military-industrial, energy, aircraft industry and financial spheres. The countries also blacklisted political leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and others.