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Despite Russia's invasion of Ukraine, both Moscow and Washington
have stressed the importance of maintaining communication on the
issue of nuclear arms. The two countries are by far the world's
largest nuclear powers with an estimated 11,000 nuclear warheads
between them.
"Russia is open to dialogue on ensuring strategic stability,
preserving non-proliferation regimes for weapons of mass
destruction and improving the situation in the field of arms
control," Putin said in remarks to a legal forum in his home
city of St. Petersburg.
He said the efforts would require "painstaking joint work" and
would go towards preventing a repeat of "what is happening today
in the Donbas".
The Russian leader says Moscow invaded Ukraine to protect ethnic
Russians and Russian-speakers in the eastern Donbas region from
persecution from Kyiv. He repeated those claims on Thursday,
accusing Ukraine of "crimes against humanity."
Ukraine and the West say Russia's invasion of its neighbour was
an unprovoked act of aggression, aimed at seizing Ukrainian
territory and toppling President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
(Reporting by Reuters)
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