NEW YORK, February 24. /TASS/. The United States sees no change in the readiness of Russian nuclear forces and has made no changes in the readiness of its own forces, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN in an interview.

"We do not see any change in Russia's nuclear posture and we've made no changes in our nuclear posture," Sullivan said when asked if he thought that Russia could use nuclear weapons.

"So we are constantly vigilant and we also maintain regular channels [of communication] to the Russian government to be able to talk to them about the risk of this escalation and also communicate the severity of the consequences of the use of nuclear weapons," Sullivan continued. He reiterated that the US has not "seen movements in Russia's nuclear forces that lead us to believe that something fundamentally has changed from how things have been over the course of the past year."

Putin announced his decision to suspend Russia's participation in New START in his State of the Nation Address to the Federal Assembly on Tuesday. The president stressed that Russia was not withdrawing from the treaty, but before discussing the continuation of work under this treaty, Russia must understand for itself how New START would take into account the arsenals not only of the United States, but also of other NATO nuclear powers: the UK and France. The Duma on Wednesday unanimously passed a law suspending Russia's participation in New START.