Putin has made his pitch on arms – now it's up to Trump

If there has been one message from the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine recently, it has been "more of the same". The hopes of halting violence that Donald Trump brought to office have evaporated. The word ceasefire is barely heard. Any movement has been towards more rather than less war.

- MARY DEJEVSKY

At the UN General Assembly this week, Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, warned that Russia was preparing to lead the world through “the most destructive arms race in human history”. Ten days ago, after an incursion of presumed Russian drones into Poland, the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, warned that his country was closer to military conflict “than at any time since the Second World War”. Trump recently gave an apparent go-ahead to the prospect of Nato countries shooting down intruding Russian drones, seconded by the EU's president, Ursula von der Leyen.

Into this doom-laden picture, however, a narrow shaft of light comes from a completely unexpected quarter. In a statement preceding a routine meeting of the Russian Security Council, Vladimir Putin said that Russia would support extending the long-range nuclear Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, known as New Start, by another year when it comes up for expiry in February - as long as the United States agrees to do the same, and refrained from any actions that might change the current nuclear status quo.

There was no knee-jerk dismissal from the United States, with the White House spokesperson saying the proposal sounded “pretty good”, but that Trump would respond to the offer himself.