Russia has emphasized that any negotiations on reducing strategic nuclear weapons must begin with direct talks between Moscow and Washington, but that Britain and France will eventually need to be part of the process. New START, signed in 2010 by then-U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, restricts each side to 1,550 deployed strategic nuclear warheads and 700 delivery vehicles, including missiles, submarines, and bombers. Russia and the United States hold the world’s largest nuclear stockpiles, while Britain and France—never parties to New START—maintain significantly smaller arsenals of roughly 250–300 warheads each. Peskov underscored that ignoring these European arsenals in future negotiations would undermine long-term security, particularly as global strategic stability grows increasingly fragile. The future of arms control remains uncertain as Ukraine pushes for harsher sanctions on Moscow, while Washington weighs whether to pursue bilateral or expanded talks on nuclear reductions.