The Russian Foreign Ministry accused the U.S. of carrying out a “total hybrid war” and putting the two countries on a direct path to a confrontation over its historic support for Ukraine to weaken Russia.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the U.S.’s military support for Ukraine has brought on an unprecedented crisis that resulted in no room for diplomacy. The U.S. has provided Ukraine with $196 billion in aid, trains Ukrainian troops, provides Kyiv with live intelligence updates, and has special forces on the ground. (Germany comes in second place and has provided Kyiv with $172 billion.) 

Ryabkov told reporters that “we have a very deep and unprecedented crisis in Russia-U.S. relations. The Biden administration has driven them into a deadlock.”

Compounding the crisis is the fact that Russia and the U.S. are at odds over the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START).

The treaty is the last one remaining that provides a legally binding cap on deployed strategic nuclear warheads (1,550). The current agreement expires on 5 February 2026 and may herald a new nuclear arms race.

The U.S. has accused Russia of being in noncompliance with the agreement, and Moscow has refused on-site inspections that were put in place during the COVID-19 outbreak, the U.S. said.

Russia denied the claim and said the 2010 agreement was signed in a different environment and with the idea that both countries are equal partners. But times have changed. 

Moscow said there can be no business as usual with a country that has said it wants to see the strategic defeat of Russia. 

The Kremlin also said that it was the U.S. that first blocked Russian monitors from inspecting sites that “created obvious unilateral benefits” for Washington.

“Until Washington revises its hostile stance regarding Russia and drops the policy of increasing the threats towards our national security,” Moscow will consider any proposed gestures of goodwill under the nuclear treaty “unjustified, untimely and uncalled for,” the foreign ministry said.

TRENDPOST: Since Russia first invaded Ukraine, The Trends Journal forecast the beginning of WWIII. (See “TOP TREND 2023: WWIII” 3 Jan 2023, “THE RISING DANGER OF PUTIN’S GO-SLOW LIMITED WAR” 2 Nov 2022 and, “EU’S BORRELL SAYS RUSSIAN ARMY WOULD BE ‘ANNIHILATED’ IF PUTIN USES NUKES IN UKRAINE” 18 Oct 2022.)

Despite all the support for Ukraine, the U.S. insists that it wants to avoid war with Russia.

Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, told reporters in a video call last month that it was inaccurate to say that the U.S. and NATO are not “taking part in this war.”

“You are directly participating in it,” he said, according to The Associated Press. “And not just by providing weapons but also by training personnel. You are training their military on your territory, on the territories of Britain, Germany, Italy, and other countries.”

Gerald Celente has said WWIII will not be “official” until there is a nuclear flash or a major false flag event.