Putin raises nuclear threat

Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved a change in nuclear doctrine to allow the use of nuclear weapons in response to a Ukrainian long-range US missile attack on Russian territory. 

The Russian government has confirmed that it will respond with nuclear missiles to conventional attacks and that it will hold North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) countries responsible for offensives that may come from Ukraine. 

Vladimir Putin's government has changed its nuclear doctrine to authorise the use of nuclear weapons in the event of ‘aggression by any non-nuclear state, but with the participation or support of a nuclear country’. The Kremlin's response comes in the wake of US President Joe Biden's authorisation of the use of the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) in Ukraine. 

Before Donald Trump's inauguration in January, US President Joe Biden authorised Ukraine's attack on Russian territory with US long-range missiles, which has raised tensions to an as yet unknown level. 

A scenario of global escalation in which Vladimir Putin has responded by approving the doctrine that gives the green light to the use of Russian nuclear weapons if a Ukrainian offensive with these long-range missiles is received, as it implies the direct participation of a NATO country like the United States in a direct attack against Russian territory. 

These missiles, with a range of several hundred kilometres, would enable Ukraine to attack Russian army logistics centres and the airfields from which its bombers take off. 

The US-supplied ATACMS missiles are initially intended for use in the Russian border region of Kursk, where North Korean soldiers have been deployed in support of Russian troops, The New York Times reported. 

‘If such a decision was really formulated, then this is a qualitatively new escalation of tension from the point of view of US involvement,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. The US is ‘adding fuel to the fire’ with this decision, Peskov said. 

Now, according to Russia, a Ukrainian attack on the border region of Kursk would allow the Russian army to use nuclear weapons, which have great devastating power and can cause severe damage. 

The US delivered HIMARS rocket launchers to support the Ukrainian army shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, then granted it ATACMS missiles with a range of 300 kilometres, but only for defensive purposes, and has now allowed the use of long-range ATACMS missiles to attack Russian territory in the Kursk border area, which substantially changes the outlook for Russia. 

Putin has already warned about the direct involvement in the conflict of NATO countries, such as the United States or EU nations, if this type of weaponry were allowed to be used against Russian territory, as it would use infrastructure and personnel from the Atlantic Alliance to launch these missiles. 

The Russian leader did not specify at the time exactly how Russia would respond to NATO attacks on Russian territory, and has now gone so far as to threaten the nuclear weaponry card. 

The latest change in Russia's nuclear doctrine makes third countries responsible for supporting conventional attacks against Russia, even if they do not directly carry out the offensives themselves. In this way, Moscow is prepared to use nuclear weapons in the face of conventional attacks: not only if they compromise Russia's existence, as noted above, but also if they simply damage its sovereignty by attacking its own territory. 

Vladimir Putin has already threatened to use nuclear weapons in retaliation for attacks of this magnitude on Russian territory, and this is a worrying scenario. 

Indeed, Russia has reported an attack by a US-made ATACMS missile in the Bryansk region, although Ukraine has not confirmed this information. The danger of nuclear hostilities looms.