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- President Putin signed a decree expanding Russia’s nuclear doctrine to permit the use of nuclear weapons in response to non-nuclear attacks supported by nuclear-armed states.
- The updated doctrine comes days after reports that President Biden approved the use of U.S.-supplied long-range missiles by Ukraine against targets within Russia.
- The move marks a significant escalation in Russia’s nuclear posture and raises concerns about the potential for nuclear conflict amid the ongoing Ukraine war.
President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on November 19 updating and expanding Moscow’s nuclear doctrine to allow for the use of atomic weapons in case of an attack on Russia by a nonnuclear actor that is backed by a nuclear power.
The move comes just days after President Joe Biden reportedly gave Ukraine permission to use U.S.-supplied long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS, to strike deep inside Russia. ATACMS have a range of some 300 kilometers.
The updated doctrine says Russia would consider using nuclear weapons after receiving “reliable information about the launching of a massive attack against it and missiles crossing the Russian border.”
Moscow will consider “aggression by a nonnuclear state — but with the participation or support of a nuclear-armed state — as a joint attack on the Russian Federation,” the document says, without clarifying if such an aggression would automatically trigger a nuclear response.
The document also expands the list of states and military alliances against which nuclear “deterrence” can be carried out, as well as the “list of military threats for the neutralization of which nuclear deterrence measures are carried out.”
The review of Russia’s nuclear doctrine was announced by Putin on September 25, 2024, at a meeting of the Russian Security Council amid discussions around allowing Ukraine to strike deep inside Russia.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, asked whether the change in doctrine — which was announced as Russia’s war on Ukraine marked its 1,000th day — was linked to the reported move by Biden, said the update was released “in a timely manner” based on the “current situation.”
The reported U.S. decision, which has yet to be officially confirmed by the White House, comes after months of insistence by Kyiv to be allowed to use Western-donated long-range systems to strike military targets deep inside Russia.
Britain and France have also supplied Ukraine with their jointly-made Storm Shadow missiles which have a 250-kilometer range, but have so far refrained from giving Kyiv approval to use them against targets farther into Russia.
Meanwhile, on November 18, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said once again that Germany will not send its Taurus missiles, which have a 500-kilometer range, to Ukraine.
The post Russia’s New Nuclear Policy Raises Stakes in Ukraine Conflict appeared first on Energy News Beat.
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