US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday described Russia’s decision to suspend the New Start nuclear disarmament treaty as “very disappointing and irresponsible” and insisted his country remains “willing” to talk about the issue.

“Russia’s announcement to suspend its participation in New Start is very disappointing and irresponsible,” he told reporters at the US embassy in Athens. “But of course we remain ready at any time to discuss strategic arms limitation with Russia,” she added.

The announcement of the new Russian position was made by the president Vladimir Putin during his annual address to the nation.

The treaty, since 2010, is the latter that Washington and Moscow maintain to avoid a nuclear escalationbut it has weakened in recent years, with US accusations that Russia was not complying.

During his speech, Putin also stressed that Russia must be ready to do this resume testing of nuclear weapons if the United States does the same.

The Russian president argued that the The Kremlin “step by step” will achieve its goals in Ukrainewhile defining the moment the country is experiencing as “difficult”.

Putin also accused the West of wanting to inflict a “strategic defeat” on Russia in Ukraine and end it “once and for all”. And he accused the United States and NATO of “rapidly deploying their secret military bases and biological laboratories near the borders” of Russia, of “dominating the theater of future military operations with maneuvers” and of preparing an “enslaved Ukraine for a great war.”

“What does this mean? What is this for us? It means they want to finish us off once and for all,” Putin said during his state of the nation address to both houses of parliament.