Russia's Putin signs updated doctrine that lowers threshold for using nuclear weapons
On 1,000th day since Russia invaded, Kremlin says Ukraine has employed long-range U.S. missiles
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday signed a revised nuclear doctrine declaring that a conventional attack on Russia by any country that is supported by a nuclear power will be considered a joint attack on his country.
Putin's endorsement of the new nuclear deterrent policy comes on the 1,000th day after he sent troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Putin first announced changes in the nuclear doctrine in September, when he chaired a meeting discussing the proposed revisions, but the signing follows an apparent decision by the U.S. to let Ukraine strike targets inside Russia with American-supplied longer-range missiles, which was first learned in published reports on the weekend.
Russia's Defence Ministry, as reported by Russian news agencies on Tuesday, said that Ukraine launched an attack on the Bryansk region overnight with six U.S.-made ATACMS long-range missiles. Debris from one missile fell on a military facility causing a fire, but the other five were intercepted, the report said.
The attack resulted in no casualties or damage, the ministry said.
Asked about the attack on a weapons depot in the Russian Bryansk region, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv now had U.S. ATACMS systems as well as its own long-range capabilities, and would use all of them.
'Irresponsible rhetoric'
The signing of the doctrine, which says that any massive aerial attack on Russia could trigger a nuclear response, reflects Putin's readiness to threaten use of the country's nuclear arsenal to force the West to back down as Moscow presses a slow-moving offensive in Ukraine.
Asked about whether the updated doctrine was deliberately issued on the heels of the U.S. decision to ease restrictions on Ukraine using its longer-range missiles to strike Russia, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the document was published "in a timely manner" and that Putin instructed the government to update it earlier this year so that it is "in line with the current situation."
Russia's president has previously warned the U.S. and other NATO allies that allowing Ukraine to use Western-supplied longer-range weapons to hit Russian territory would mean that Russia and NATO are at war.
The White House National Security Council in a statement through a spokesperson characterized the doctrine change as unsurprising and "more of the same irresponsible rhetoric from Russia."
"Observing no changes to Russia's nuclear posture, we have not seen any reason to adjust our own nuclear posture or doctrine in response to Russia's statements today," the statement said.
Includes countries who support attack from a nuclear power
The updated doctrine states that an attack against his country by a non-nuclear power with the "participation or support of a nuclear power" will be seen as their "joint attack on the Russian Federation."
It doesn't specify whether such an attack would necessarily trigger a nuclear response. It mentions the "uncertainty of scale, time and place of possible use of nuclear deterrent" among the key principles of the nuclear deterrence.
At the same time, it spells out conditions for using nuclear weapons in greater detail compared to the previous version of the doctrine, noting they could be used in case of a massive air attack involving ballistic and cruise missiles, aircraft, drones and other flying vehicles.
The wide formulation appears to significantly broaden the triggers for possible nuclear weapons use compared with the previous version of the document, which stated that Russia could tap its atomic arsenal if "reliable information is received about the launch of ballistic missiles targeting the territory of Russia or its allies."
The revised doctrine envisages that Russia could use nuclear weapons in response to aggression against its ally Belarus.
Belarus's authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled the country with an iron hand for more than 30 years, has relied on Russian subsidies and support. He has let Russia use his country's territory to send troops into Ukraine and allowed the Kremlin to deploy some of its tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
Another Sumy attack kills several
Advancing village by village, Russia since August has recorded its fastest gains in Ukraine since the first year of the war.
Russian forces claimed the capture of the Ukrainian settlement of Novoselydivka in Eastern Ukraine, Russian state news agency TASS reported on Tuesday, citing the Defence Ministry.
Meanwhile, 12 people, including a child, were killed in a Russian drone attack on Ukraine's northeastern region of Sumy, Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday.
The drone attack overnight on a residential building in the small town of Hlukhiv bordering Russia also wounded 13 people, including three children, Ukraine's national police force said.
Ukraine's air force said it had shot down 51 drones and lost track of 30 more after Russia launched 87 drones overnight. Drones that disappear from radar have often been brought down by Ukrainian electronic defences.
Russian forces have pummelled the northeastern region of Sumy in recent months, damaging its critical and civilian infrastructure.
A missile strike there on Sunday killed 11 people, injured 89 and cut power for thousands.
With files from Reuters