Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced that the country will now lower the threshold placed on the anticipation of the use of nuclear weapons. The disclosure was made on Tuesday days after the United States allowed Ukraine to strike inside Russia using American missiles.
The move was announced by the Kremlin that the Russian president has given the go-ahead for a new way to use the nuclear weapon which will be a doctrine and new policy that will guide how the country makes use of its nuclear weapon weapon arsenal. The policy has also disclosed that Moscow could unleash a nuclear strike if subject to an attack by a non-nuclear country that has the support of a nuclear state.
In a revelation on Tuesday by the Moscow defense military, it was disclosed that the Ukerain forces 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.
It was noted that the pragmatic efforts of the Russian air defenses had led to the shooting down of five ATACMS missiles but fragments of another “fell on the technical territory of a military facility in the Bryansk region. The military noted that the incident had caused a fire that was quickly decimated. The military further noted that there was no damage or casualty from the attack.
The military noted that the data that was confirmed revealed that the ATACMS operational-tactical missiles were made in America.
In an earlier report, the Ukerain military had disclosed that they had successfully hit a military arsenal near the city of Karachev in Bryansk, but failed to disclose the type of weapons that were used to conduct the attack,
The changes to Russia’s nuclear doctrine mark the most significant sabre 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.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov while speaking TASS state news agency in comments published early Tuesday it was noted that the update made to the nuclear doctrine was important because it has now made the document to stand in line with the current political situation,
Peskove noted that the new threat on Moscow which has been caused by the shift of policy by Washington as one of the reasons for the update. It was noted that the use of Western non-nuclear missiles by Ukraine’s military against Russia under the new doctrine could lead to a nuclear response. He also noted that the use of nuclear weapons would be the last step to be taken by the military in carrying out attacks.
Putin had hinted at the update to his country’s policy earlier this year as he sought to warn the West against easing regulations on Kyiv’s use of long-range weapons to strike deep inside Russia.
Also, Russia has hinted that it was going to use the weapons if Belarus was attacked, the updated doctrine has now spoken in the same direction as the earlier reserve.
The document stated that any aggression against the Russian Federation and its allies by a non-nuclear country with the support of a nuclear state would be considered a joint attack.
The other part of the doctrine also states that the Russian Federation may use nuclear weapons in the event of a critical threat to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of itself and Belarus, a shift from the previous language that said it may use nuclear weapons when the very existence of the state is at risk.
The new changes have now come after Putin’s warning to the U.S. and its NATO allies that any use of their long-range weapons supplied to the Ukrainians against Russian territory would mean NATO and Russia are at war. The Biden government had long opposed Kyiv’s calls to relax constraints on the weapons it has provided to its ally.
The new step is coming after the U.S. and others expressed that thousands of North Korean troops had entered the fight alongside the Kremlin’s military, U.S. officials told NBC News that the Biden government had allowed the use of the long-range ATACMS missile systems for limited strikes inside Russia.
The new step has been condemned by the Kremlin. Peskov stated on Monday that Washington was pouring oil on the fire and was provoking further escalation of tension around this dispute.
Tatiana Stanovaya, a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the founder and head of the political analysis firm R.Politik stated that the new steps taken will further create more freedom for a Russian nuclear response to Ukrainian or, as the Kremlin frames it, Western strikes on Russian territory
She noted that the new changes that have occurred in the US may be the reasons for the change in strategies and the reason for the new decision.
Stanovaya said in a post on X that 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. Stanovaya further noted that Putin may seek to present the West with two stark choices which could be Do you want a nuclear war? You will have it,’ or ‘Let’s end this war on Russia’s terms.
She expressed fear and noted that the moment marks an extraordinarily dangerous juncture.
