Putin Lowers Nuclear-Strike Threshold as Ukraine Launches Long-Range Missiles into Russia James Lynch
Russian president Vladimir Putin revised Russia’s nuclear doctrine Tuesday, reducing its threshold for using nuclear weapons just as the Russian military announced that Ukraine had launched long-range missiles supplied by the U.S. into Russian territory.
Putin’s new nuclear doctrine proclaims that Russia can use nuclear weapons in response to an attack from a non-nuclear state with support from a nuclear state, a clear reference to U.S. support for Ukraine. The doctrine formalizes a policy Putin announced in September during a televised meeting with top officials.
“[Russian] President [Vladimir Putin] gave the relevant instructions prior. The president himself stated that the preparation of the amendments was in the final stage. The updated document was released on schedule,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to the state-run Tass news agency.
Peskov was addressing a question about whether the document’s publication coincided with news reports that Biden would allow Ukraine to launch American missiles deep into Russia.
He also said Russia’s nuclear doctrine stipulates that a Ukrainian attack with western missiles could trigger a nuclear response. Throughout Russia’s war against Ukraine, Putin has threatened to escalate the war into a nuclear conflict against Ukraine and its western allies.
As Putin updated Russia’s nuclear doctrine, the Russian military said Tuesday Ukraine fired six U.S.-made ATACMS missiles into the Bryansk region, a western part of the country that shares a border with Ukraine.
“According to confirmed data, American-made ATACMS operational-tactical missiles were used,” the Russian defense ministry announced on Telegram.
“ATACMS fragments fell on the technical territory of a military facility in the Bryansk region, a fire broke out, it was extinguished.”
Ukraine said it hit an ammunitions warehouse in Bryansk without specifying which weapons were used. The Ukrainian military said the attack took place near the city of Karachev and caused 12 secondary explosions. The claims from Russia and Ukraine could not be independently verified.
The Biden administration declined to confirm on Monday multiple reports detailing Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to strike Russia’s Kursk region with ATACMS missiles.
“I’m not going to speak to or confirm any policy changes. But when you look at escalation of this conflict, it has been Russia that has escalated the conflict time and time again,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
“And that includes just in the recent month when Russia recruited the deployment of more than 11,000 North Korean soldiers who are now on the front lines in Kursk engaging in combat operations against the Ukrainian military.”
Putin’s full-scale military invasion of Ukraine beginning in February 2022 reached its 1,000 day Tuesday. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky emphasized his nation’s resilience and called for unity in order to achieve victory.
“Victory is impossible in isolation. Only in unity can we achieve it. This is a war that determines the fate of our entire nation. And no one should and will be able to solve it for us. Ukraine has been and will be an independent state with its own destiny,” Zelensky said.
“This is not just about individual cities or regions. This battle is about all of Ukraine, all of Europe, about order or chaos for the entire world. While the world waits for a miracle from Trump, we must work—relentlessly, every single day. As a whole nation, we must strengthen the resilience of our entire state.”
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