The main purpose of this article is to study the efforts of the United Nations as a legitimate platform at the global level, which has tools of an international legal nature to maintain peace, stability and security in arms control issues, in the field of disarmament and non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The article examines the history of long-term activities of Soviet and Russian diplomacy in this area, offers solutions and scenarios for building new approaches in Russian foreign policy in this area. When preparing the article, a set of different methods was used: the main technique was the complex application of different methods - system, historical and problem analysis, along with the principles of logical interpretation. The article highlights the role and importance of the most important international UN documents in the field of disarmament, adopted with the active participation of Soviet and Russian diplomacy, develops the concept of inadmissibility of diluting the main elements and powers of the UN system, and also gives specific recommendations for their prevention. The authors conclude that the end of the cold war did not lead to a stable and equal system, safe for its participants, and the new rivalry of the leading powers returned. In this regard, the perspective importance of the "nuclear five" format in the issues of arms control and disarmament processes is highlighted. The theoretical and, especially, practical significance of the work is determined by the high degree of relevance of this issue - at present, the architecture of security and control over nuclear weapons created over the past half century is disintegrating, which, according to the authors, requires a rethinking of the role of the UN in global processes.