For the first time in decades, the U.S. and Russia have no limits on nuclear weapons [View all]

Source: NPR

The world's two largest nuclear powers, Russia and the United States, no longer have any limits on their arsenals.

At midnight on Thursday, a 15-year-old treaty called New START expired, and with it, caps on the number of weapons the two sides could deploy on missiles, bombers and submarines.

"There are no more guardrails on the sizes of the United States and Russian strategic nuclear arsenals," said Christine Wormuth, president of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, an arms control advocacy group based in Washington, D.C. "That has not been the case for decades."

President Trump posted on social media on Thursday, "Rather than extend 'NEW START' (A badly negotiated deal by the United States that, aside from everything else, is being grossly violated), we should have our Nuclear Experts work on a new, improved, and modernized Treaty that can last long into the future."

Read more: https://www.npr.org/2026/02/04/nx-s1-5697382/new-start-nuclear-treaty-expired-us-russia