MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday declared his readiness to adhere to nuclear arms limits for one more year under the last remaining nuclear pact with the United States that expires in February, and he urged Washington to follow suit.
Putin said allowing the New START agreement signed in 2010 to expire would be destabilizing and could fuel proliferation of nuclear weapons. His televised remarks came at a time of heightened tensions between Russia and the West, and with concerns rising that fighting in Ukraine could spread beyond its borders.
“To avoid provoking a further strategic arms race and to ensure an acceptable level of predictability and restraint, we believe it is justified to try to maintain the status quo established by the New START Treaty during the current, rather turbulent period,” Putin said while speaking from the Kremlin. He said Russia is prepared to stick by the treaty's limits for one more year after it expires on Feb. 5, 2026.
Arms control advocates long have voiced concern about the treaty’s looming expiration and the lack of dialogue to secure a successor deal, warning about the possibility of a new nuclear arms race and increased risk of a nuclear conflict.
Putin said maintaining limits on nuclear weapons could also be an important step in “creating an atmosphere conducive to substantive strategic dialogue with the U.S.”
The New START, signed by then U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev, limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers. The pact also stipulates the need for on-site inspections to verify compliance, although inspections were halted in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and never resumed.
The treaty was originally supposed to expire in 2021, but was extended for five more years.
Putin emphasized that Russia expected the U.S. to follow its example and stick to the treaty’s limits.
“We believe this measure will only be viable if the United States acts in a similar manner,” Putin said.
Daryl G. Kimball, the director of the Washington-based Arms Control Association, welcomed Putin’s statement on X as “an important and positive move.”
He and other arms control experts long have prodded Moscow and Washington to quickly reach an interim deal to maintain existing nuclear weapons limits.
“More nuclear weapons will not make anyone safer,” Kimball said in a commentary earlier this month. “By agreeing not to exceed the current strategic nuclear limits, they could reduce tensions, forestall a costly arms race that no one can win, create diplomatic leverage to curb the buildup of China’s arsenal, and buy time for talks on a broader, more durable, treaty."
U.S. President Donald Trump has said that he and Putin talked about nuclear weapons during their summit in Alaska last month. Asked to comment in July on a looming expiration of the New START, Trump noted “that is a big problem for the world, when you take off nuclear restrictions.”
In his televised comments, Putin instructed Russian agencies to “closely monitor relevant American activities, particularly with regard to the strategic offensive arms arsenal.” Among the concerns he cited were any preparations by the U.S. to deploy missile interceptors in space.
Such a move would compel Russia to “respond accordingly,” he said.
In February 2023, Putin suspended Moscow’s participation in the New START treaty, saying Russia couldn't allow U.S. inspections of its nuclear sites at a time when Washington and its NATO allies have openly declared Moscow’s defeat in Ukraine as their goal.
At the same time, Russia has emphasized that it wasn't withdrawing from the pact altogether and pledged to respect the caps on nuclear weapons set under the treaty and keep notifying the U.S. about test launches of ballistic missiles.
Another key U.S.-Russian nuclear arms pact was terminated in 2019. That was the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which was signed in 1987 and banned land-based missiles with a range between 500-5,500 kilometers (310-3,400 miles).
As tensions between Russia and the West have escalated over the conflict in Ukraine, NATO allies in Europe have recently accused Russia of what they said are provocations, including Russian drones in Polish airspace and fighter jets in Estonian airspace.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, center, chairs a Security Council meeting at the Kremlin in , Russia, Monday, Sept. 22, 2025. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a Security Council meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Sept. 22, 2025. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a Security Council meeting at the Kremlin in Russia, Monday, Sept. 22, 2025. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
PROVO, Utah (AP) — The Utah man charged with killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk returned to court Friday, as his attorneys sought to disqualify prosecutors because the daughter of a deputy county attorney involved in the case attended the rally where Kirk was shot.
Defense attorneys say the relationship represents a conflict of interest after prosecutors said they intend to seek the death penalty for Tyler Robinson.
Robinson, 22, is charged with aggravated murder in the Sept. 10 shooting of Kirk on the Utah Valley University campus in Orem, just a few miles north of the Provo courthouse. He has not yet entered a plea.
The director of a state council that trains prosecutors said he doubted the disqualification attempt would succeed, and he was unaware of any major case where attorneys had been disqualified for bias.
“I would bet against the defense winning this motion,” Utah Prosecution Council Director Robert Church told The Associated Press. “They’ve got to a show a substantial amount of prejudice and bias.”
The prosecutor’s 18-year-old daughter, who attended the event where Kirk was shot, later texted her father in the Utah County Attorney’s Office to describe the chaotic aftermath, according to court filings and testimony. She did not see the shooting but heard a loud pop, according to an affidavit submitted by prosecutors.
Robinson's attorneys say the close connection between the prosecution team and a person present for Kirk's killing “raises serious concerns about past and future prosecutorial decision-making,” according to court documents. They also argue that the “rush” to seek the death penalty is evidence of “strong emotional reactions” by the prosecution and merits disqualification of the entire team.
Defense attorney Richard Novak urged Judge Tony Graf on Friday to bring in the state attorney general’s office in place of Utah County prosecutors to address the alleged conflict of interest. Novak said it was problematic for county prosecutors to litigate on behalf of the state while defending their aptness to stay on the case.
Utah County Attorney Jeffrey Gray argued that Novak’s last-minute request was aimed at delaying the case against Robinson. His office has asked Graf to deny the disqualification request.
“This is ambush and another stalling tactic,” Gray said.
Several thousand people attended the outdoor rally where Kirk, a co-founder of Turning Point USA who helped mobilize young people to vote for President Donald Trump, was shot as he took audience questions.
The prosecutor's daughter, a student at Utah Valley University, texted a family group chat that day saying, “CHARLIE GOT SHOT.” Gray testified Friday that he was with his colleague when he received that text, and the colleague showed it to him.
In the weeks after the shooting, the young woman did not miss classes and reported no lasting trauma “aside from being scared at the time,” the affidavit said.
Gray emphasized that she was “neither a material witness nor a victim in the case” and that “nearly everything” she knows about Kirk's killing is mere hearsay.
“There is virtually no risk, let alone a significant risk, that it would arouse such emotions in any father-prosecutor as to render him unable to fairly prosecute the case,” he said in a court filing.
The deputy county attorney and his daughter are expected to testify Feb. 3.
If Utah County prosecutors were disqualified, the case would likely shift to prosecutors in a county with enough resources to handle a big case, such as Salt Lake City, or possibly the state attorney general’s office, said Church, the prosecution council director. Graf would have the final say, he said.
Friday's hearing was briefly interrupted when the defense raised concerns that close-up shots of Robinson livestreamed by a local television station could be analyzed by lip readers to see what he was discussing with his attorneys. That prompted Graf to order the camera operator not to film Robinson for the remainder of the hearing.
Prosecutors have said DNA evidence connects Robinson to the killing. Robinson also reportedly texted his romantic partner that he targeted Kirk because he “had enough of his hatred.”
At the school where the shooting took place, university president Astrid Tuminez announced Wednesday that she will be stepping down from her role after the semester ends in May.
The state university has been working to expand its police force and add security managers after it was criticized for a lack of key safety measures on the day of the shooting.
Prosecutors are expected to lay out their case against Robinson at a preliminary hearing scheduled to begin May 18.
This story has been updated to correct the name of Utah County Attorney Jeffrey Gray.
Brown reported from Billings, Montana.
Fourth District Court Judge Tony Graf presides over a hearing for Tyler Robinson in 4th District Court in Provo, Utah, on Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (Bethany Baker/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray addresses the court during a hearing for Tyler Robinson in 4th District Court in Provo, Utah, on Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (Bethany Baker/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
Tyler Robinson, accused in the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, sits beside defense attorney Kathryn Nester during a hearing in 4th District Court in Provo, Utah, on Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (Bethany Baker/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
Tyler Robinson, accused in the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, sits beside defense attorney Kathryn Nester during a hearing in 4th District Court in Provo, Utah, on Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (Bethany Baker/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
FILE - A U.S. flag hangs at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, Sept. 17, 2025, over the site where conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed. (AP Photo/Jesse Bedayn, File)
FILE - Tyler Robinson, who is accused of fatally shooting Charlie Kirk, appears during a hearing in Fourth District Court in Provo, Utah, Dec. 11, 2025. (Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool, File)
