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.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Ukraine launched its first attack on Russian territory with long-range weaponry provided by the United States, using an ATACMS missile to strike a military installation in the Bryansk region.
Five ATACMS missiles were shot down by Russian air defenses, but pieces of another landed onto the technical area of a military installation in the Bryansk area, starting a fire that was swiftly put out. According to a statement, there were no casualties or damages.
“According to confirmed data, the deployed ATACMS operational-tactical missiles were American-made,” added the statement.
Later, two U.S. sources told NBC News that Ukraine had fired ATACMS in the Bryansk region, across the country’s northern border, close to the city of Karachev. This was the first time the U.S.-supplied weaponry had been used inside Russia.
They said that while Ukraine has previously hit targets deep into Russia, it has done so using domestic drones rather than Western weapons.
The Ukrainian military claimed to have struck a military arsenal in Bryansk, close to Karachev. What weapons were utilized in the attack was not specified.
The Kremlin has continuously threatened a nuclear war in the 1,000 days since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and the amendments to Russia’s nuclear doctrine represent the most serious saber-rattling to yet.
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 text to reflect the present political climate.
In light of Washington’s policy change, Peskov described Moscow’s new threat, which is that a nuclear reaction may result from Ukraine’s military using Western nonnuclear weapons against Russia in accordance with the new doctrine.
However, he emphasized, using nuclear weapons would only be a last choice.
Russia’s shift was not unexpected, according to a U.S. State Department spokeswoman.
“Since the beginning of its war of aggression against Ukraine, it has sought to coerce and intimidate both Ukraine and other countries around the world through irresponsible nuclear rhetoric and behavior,” stated Matt Miller of the State Department. “Despite what Russia says, neither the United States nor NATO pose any threat to Russia.”
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 modifications come after Putin warned the United States and its NATO allies that if they used the long-range weaponry they provided to Ukraine against Russian territory, NATO and Russia would be at war.
Kyiv has long urged the Biden administration to loosen restrictions on the weapons it has sent to its friend, but the administration has resisted.
However, U.S. officials told NBC News that the Biden administration had approved the use of the long-range ATACMS missile systems for limited strikes inside Russia after the U.S. and others claimed that hundreds of North Korean troops had entered the battle alongside the Kremlin’s military.
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.”
Tatiana Stanovaya, a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the founder and head of the political analysis firm R.Politik, said the changes give Russia more room to respond with nuclear weapons to Ukraine or, as the Kremlin portrays it, Western strikes on Russian territory.
She suggested that the timing of the revised nuclear doctrine may have been influenced by the shift in Washington’s leadership.
Putin may consider the current state of affairs as a purposeful pause, highlighting what he perceives to be Biden’s policy’s recklessness while awaiting potential peace moves from (President-elect Donald) Trump. Putin would try to give the West a choice between two extreme options: Do you want a nuclear conflict? In a post on X, Stanovaya stated, “You will have it, or let’s end this war on Russia’s terms.”
She went on to say that this is a very risky time.
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