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On the anniversary of his invasion, Putin continued to escalate his rhetoric.

As of this week, it has officially been one year since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, a conflict that Russian President Vladimir Putin infamously bragged would only take a few days. Yesterday, Putin gave a Presidential address to discuss the state of the conflict, blaming western powers like the United States and NATO for its escalation.

“I want to repeat: it was they who unleashed the war,” Putin said. “And we used and continue to use force to stop it.”

One of the standout points of Putin’s speech, however, was his announcement of Russia’s suspension of a major global nuclear treaty.

“The US and NATO openly state that their goal is the strategic defeat of Russia,” he said. “And what, after that are we just supposed to let them to travel around our (nuclear) facilities?”

“They want to inflict a strategic defeat on us and climb all over our nuclear facilities,” Putin said. “So I’d like to make the announcement today that Russia is suspending its participation in the START Treaty.”

President Biden says Vladimir Putin suspending Russia’s participation in the New START nuclear arms treaty with the U.S. was a “big mistake.” pic.twitter.com/364Q7nfoyJ

— The Recount (@therecount) February 22, 2023

The New START treaty is an agreement between Russia and the United States to reduce the number of nuclear warheads in the world. Political analysts have noted that START inspections have been paused for several years since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, so this announcement doesn’t actually change much. Even so, the move is undoubtedly hostile in intent, which is why, following the address, US President Joe Biden was quoted as saying the suspension was a “big mistake.”