According to the TASS news agency, Vladimir Yermakov, who is in charge of nuclear non-proliferation at the Russian foreign ministry, cautioned on Tuesday that there has been a continuous rise in direct military clashes between the United States and Russia, the two nuclear superpowers.

Yermakov, speaking to the Russian state news agency, said that the conduct of Washington towards Moscow is escalating the risks of a nuclear war in the future.
Since Russia started invading Ukraine 14 months ago, regular charges were issued by Moscow against the United States and it called “the collective West” for increasing the risks of a nuclear war,
“If the United States continues to follow its current course of confrontation with Russia, with the stakes constantly escalating on the verge of sliding into direct armed conflict, then the fate of START (nuclear arms treaty) may be a foregone conclusion,” said Yermakov.
In March, the US informed Russia that it will stop exchanging data on its nuclear forces after Moscow refused to share the same, calling it a reaction to Russia’s decision of pulling out from the New START treaty.
“However, in the worst-case scenario, i.e. if Washington drives the situation to a military clash between the strongest nuclear powers, then it is not the fate of the New START but the fate of the entire world that will be a concern,” Yermakov said
“This once again confirms that the most pressing threat today is connected not with the dynamic of stimuli for the first massive strike, which is supposed to be curbed by agreements like the New START, but with a danger of nuclear escalation as a result of a direct military confrontation between nuclear powers. And, to our deepest regrets, these risks keep growing,” he added.