Putin threatens to use nuclear weapons against the West if Ukraine fires US long-range missiles on Russian soil
19 November 2024, 10:29 | Updated: 19 November 2024, 10:39
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a new doctrine lowering the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons should Ukraine use Western-supplied long-range missiles to strike targets inside Russia.
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Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said “The Russian Federation reserves the right to use nuclear weapons in the event of aggression with the use of conventional weapons against it.”
The development means the Kremlin has now officially put nuclear retaliation on the table - in the form of the updated doctrine.
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Joe Biden has reportedly authorised Ukraine to fire US long-rage missiles on to Russian targets.
Russia has promised an "appropriate" response if Ukraine does choose to use long-range missiles to strike its territory.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s forces have marked the 1,000th day of war in Ukraine by carrying out their first strike on Russian territory with US-supplied long range missiles.
A strike was launched on an ammunition store in Karachev, in Russia’s Bryansk region.
Ukrainian officials have confirmed that the attack was conducted with a US-made Army Tactical Missile System or ATACMS, which is capable of hitting targets up to 300km (186 miles) away.
Washington had previously refused to allow such strikes with US-made ATACMS missiles because it feared they would escalate the war.
Fears are now raised that Moscow may now consider a dramatic escalation in the conflict.
On Monday, another Russian missile attack started fires in two apartment blocks in Odesa, in southern Ukraine.
At least eight people were killed and many more were injured, Ukrainian legislator Oleksii Honcharenko said in a video he posted on Telegram from the site of the attack.
The US, South Korea and Nato said recently that North Korean troops are in Russia and are apparently being deployed to help the Russian army drive Ukrainian troops out of Russia's Kursk border region.
Russia is also slowly pushing Ukraine's outnumbered army backwards in the eastern Donetsk region.
It has also conducted a devastating and deadly aerial campaign against civilian areas in Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday referred journalists to a statement made by Russian President Vladimir Putin in September, in which he said allowing Ukraine to target Russia would significantly raise the stakes in the conflict.
It would change "the very nature of the conflict dramatically", Mr Putin said at the time.
"This will mean that Nato countries - the United States and European countries - are at war with Russia."
Mr Peskov claimed that Western countries supplying long-range weapons also provide targeting services to Kyiv.
"This fundamentally changes the modality of their involvement in the conflict," he said.
Last June, Mr Putin warned that Russia could provide long-range weapons to others to strike Western targets in response to Nato allies allowing Ukraine to use their arms to attack Russian territory.
He also reaffirmed Moscow's readiness to use nuclear weapons if it sees a threat to its sovereignty.
US President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office in about two months' time, has raised uncertainty about whether his administration would continue the United States' vital military support for Ukraine.
He has also vowed to quickly end the war.
