Putin has decided to toy with the topic of nuclear weapons again. Military expert Serhiy Zgurets

Putin's statement is the destruction of the nuclear arms control architecture

In his speech to the federal assembly, Russia’s president announced the suspension of its participation in the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, also called START III or New Start. This treaty stipulated that each of the parties (the US and Russia) would limit the number of their nuclear warheads to 1,550, as well as how these warheads should be deployed on certain carriers: ballistic missiles, submarines, and strategic bombers. It was the only arms control treaty still in force between the US and Russia.

What does suspension mean? This is an unclear category because it is not provided for in the treaty itself. However, Putin said that the condition for Russia's return to this treaty would be the participation of the UK and France in the treaty in terms of nuclear arms control, because these countries have nuclear weapons. According to him, NATO countries seem to want to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia in Ukraine, so we need to count the weapons of all countries in the nuclear component. In other words, there is an attempt to impose Russia’s own new rules of the nuclear game on NATO and the Alliance.

In this regard, NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg said that the decision to withdraw from the START treaty has destroyed the arms control architecture. As for the consequences, there will be increased risks of unpredictability and mutual suspicion.

First, mutual inspections are being discontinued. The treaty provided that representatives of the US and Russia could visit facilities in other countries and monitor what is happening to nuclear stockpiles, how a country is modernizing them, how it is repairing, monitoring, and so on. And now this opportunity is being terminated. Although Russia had previously suspended the inspection regime, last year it tried to exchange the inspection regime for the easing of sanctions against Russia in certain areas. Of course, the US did not agree to this.

Secondly, the termination of the treaty also leads to the termination of the warning regime. That is, when submarines or ballistic missiles start moving, a silo-launcher or mobile launcher with a nuclear missile is opened, and such measures were warning measures in advance. The US warned the Russian side about this, and the Russian side, in turn, warned the US in advance of any such actions with regard to nuclear weapons. This relieved some tension in the relationship as to what would happen to a country's nuclear weapons. Now this regime is being discontinued and increases the unpredictability of what happens with nuclear weapons, especially in Russia. This is because Russia poses the main threat to the US with both conventional weapons and from time to time begins to wield its nuclear potential, saying that it can use it.

The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has already responded to this, saying that Putin's move is deeply regrettable and irresponsible. He also said that the US will closely monitor what Russia is actually doing. The US will make sure that in any case, they take the appropriate position for the security of their country and the security of their allies, Blinken said.

So, to summarize: Putin decided to toy with the nuclear weapons issue again, but once again proved himself to be an unpredictable dictator, and nothing more. However, the world has certainly become more dangerous after Putin's announcement of the termination of the treaty and strategic offensive weapons.

Weapons development by the Ukrainian defense industry

Usually, we don't mention much about our developments and our defense industry in detail, although the development of our defense industry, even in difficult conditions of war, is an extremely important issue. Therefore, taking into account all the restrictions of wartime, we will tell you about the best models used by our soldiers on the basis of the defense industry and Ukrainian enterprises in the "About weapons" section.

Let's start with the products of the state-owned Luch Design Bureau, headed by General Designer and Director General, Hero of Ukraine Oleh Korostyliov. This design bureau, in cooperation with our enterprises, has developed a number of models that are iconic. This includes the Neptune anti-ship coastal missile system with a cruise missile, which destroyed the Moskva missile cruiser and other enemy ships. These are Vilkha high-precision, long-range missiles for our MLRS systems. Other top products of the Luch Design Bureau are anti-tank guided missile systems Stuhna-P and Corsar. Stuhna-P is a top product that is currently used on the battlefield by our military.

Tetiana Chornovol, a senior lieutenant with the Armed Forces of Ukraine and commander of an anti-tank platoon, spoke about working with the Stuhna-P anti-tank missile system, noting that this system is beyond comparison because it is the best. It's not about any great characteristics of this ATGM complex, but Stuhna has one clear detail that makes it the best. This detail was made by Ukrainians who have always considered the personnel when developing weapons. To protect soldiers, Stuhna has a remote control. Since this ATGM complex is controlled via a remote control, and the remote control is on a 50-meter wire, a person does not need to be near the Stuhna, which not only protects the soldier, but also prevents the ATGM from being visible. We work at long distances, the range of the Stuhna is 5000 m. As you know, military equipment is detected by the presence of special personnel nearby, and people are always visible, a thermal imager can see a person at 10 km distance. Therefore, no one will see the Stuhna's position, and we can go weeks without appearing near our ATGM complex. We have secrets about how we recharge the batteries. That's why Stuhna can stand for weeks before it fires, and this is how this ATGM has proven itself.

As for the technical characteristics, the Stuhna-P has a range of up to 5 km, remote control, can be used both day and night, and has a powerful armor penetration of about 1200 mm in terms of dynamic protection, which means it can burn through the most modern enemy tanks.

There is an interesting story associated with these Stuhnas. In December 2021, Luch Design Bureau had no orders for these ATGM complexes and missiles for 2022 at all. The design bureau was working for export and producing foreign orders. And it was these export samples that were taken from Luch Design Bureau and given to military units when the active phase of aggression began on February 24. It was with these export models that the attacks on Bucha, Irpin and Kyiv were repelled. This means that if we take care of our own weapons in time, there will be fewer risks that have arisen on the battlefield.

We understand that not only our ATGMs are used by Ukrainian units, but also a significant number of foreign modern ATGM complexes have been transferred to Ukraine.

Defense Express expert Ivan Kyrychevskyi believes that it is more expedient for Ukraine to improve its own models, either by relying on its own production facilities or by cooperating with partners in other countries. Before the full-scale invasion, a full-fledged vector of cooperation was developed between the Luch Design Bureau and our Polish colleagues. Now the entire civilized world is saying that we need to develop our own defense capabilities, and we are behind the curve. Another point is that those systems that we believe have played their role because they are high-tech are a stereotype that we have not yet had time to dispel after the first year of the war. All Western ATGMs that we consider high-tech were simply mass-produced. Accordingly, we also need to move in the direction of realizing that we have good ATGMs, and we need to scale up production not only ideologically, but also look for practical ways to scale up production either on our territory or on the territory of partner countries.