Days after the United States let Ukraine to launch an attack inside Russia using American missiles, Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly lowered the threshold for his nation’s use of nuclear weapons on Tuesday.
Moscow could launch a nuclear strike if attacked by a non-nuclear nation backed by a nuclear state, according to the Kremlin, which said Putin had approved an updated nuclear doctrine, a document that regulates how Russia utilizes its nuclear weapons.
Moscow’s defense ministry claimed later Tuesday that Ukraine had carried out its first strike on Russian territory using U.S.-supplied long-range weapons, hitting a military facility in the Bryansk region with an ATACMS missile.
Russian air defenses shot down five ATACMS missiles but fragments of another fell on the technical territory of a military facility in the Bryansk region, causing a fire that was quickly extinguished. There were no casualties or damage, the defense ministry said in a statement.
“According to confirmed data, the deployed ATACMS operational-tactical missiles were American-made,” it said.
The Ukrainian military had earlier claimed to have struck a military facility in Bryansk, close to the city of Karachev. What weapons were utilized in the attack was not specified.
The changes to Russia’s nuclear doctrine mark the most significant saber rattling yet by the Kremlin, which has consistently warned about possible nuclear war throughout the now 1,000 days since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
In remarks released early Tuesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told the TASS state news agency that the nuclear doctrine amendment was necessary to update the document to reflect the present political climate.
Peskov outlined Moscow s new threat in light of Washington s shift in policy: That the use of Western non-nuclear missiles by Ukraine s military against Russia under the new doctrine could lead to a nuclear response.
However, he emphasized, using nuclear weapons would only be a last choice.
In an attempt to caution the West against easing constraints on Kyiv’s use of long-range weapons to strike deep within Russia, Putin had hinted at the change to his nation’s stance earlier this year.
He added that Russia had the right to use the weapons even in the event of an attack on Belarus. And that change is reflected in the new doctrine.
“Aggression against the Russian Federation and its allies by a non-nuclear country with the support of a nuclear state will be considered a joint attack,” it states.
In addition, the policy states that the Russian Federation may use nuclear weapons if there is a serious threat to Belarus’s and its own sovereignty and territorial integrity. This is different from earlier language that stated the state may use nuclear weapons if its very existence is in jeopardy.
The changes “create more leeway for a Russian nuclear response to Ukrainian or, as the Kremlin frames it, Western strikes on Russian territory” said Tatiana Stanovaya, a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the founder and head of the political analysis firm R.Politik.
She pointed to the change in leadership in Washington as a possible motive behind the timing of the updated nuclear doctrine.
“Putin may see the current situation as a strategic ‘in-between’ moment anticipating possible peace initiatives from (President-elect Donald) Trump while emphasizing what he views as the irresponsibility of Biden s policy. Putin may seek to present the West with two stark choices: ‘Do you want a nuclear war? You will have it,’ or ‘Let s end this war on Russia s terms,’ Stanovayasaid in a post on X.
“This marks an extraordinarily dangerous juncture,” she added.
The modifications come after Putin warned the United States and its NATO allies that if they used the long-range weaponry they provided to the Ukrainians against Russian territory, NATO and Russia would be at war.
The Biden administration had long resisted Kyiv’s calls to relax restrictions on the weapons it has supplied to its ally.
But after the U.S. and others said that thousands of North Korean troops had joined the fight alongside the Kremlin’s military, U.S. officials told NBC News that the Biden administration had authorized use of the long-range ATACMS missile systems for limited strikes inside Russia.
The Kremlin denounced the change, with Peskov claiming on Monday that Washington was fomenting “oil on the fire” and encouraging “further escalation of tension around this conflict.”
Former Russian President and Security Council Deputy Chair Dmitry Medvedev issued a more explicit warning to Ukraine and NATO on Tuesday. If NATO missiles were fired at Russia, the hardliner said, Moscow could target Kyiv and the bloc s facilities with its nuclear weapons.
In a post on X, Medvedev stated that this would mean World War III.
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