UN chief warns of ‘grave moment’ as final US-Russia nuclear arms treaty expires

February 7, 2026

UN News Service

In a statement issued as the treaty expired at midnight GMT Thursday, he said the world was entering uncharted territory, with no remaining legally binding constraints on the nuclear arsenals of the United States and the Russia – the two countries that together hold the vast majority of the world’s nuclear weapons.

“For the first time in more than half a century, we face a world without any binding limits on the strategic nuclear arsenals” of the two countries, he said.

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A photograph of the 1971 Licorne nuclear test, which was conducted in French Polynesia in the Pacific Ocean