MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the West on Wednesday that Russia could use nuclear weapons if attacked by conventional missiles, and that Moscow would consider any nuclear-backed attack a collective attack.
The decision to change Russia’s official nuclear doctrine is the Kremlin’s response to debates in the US and Britain over whether to allow Ukraine to launch Western-style ballistic missiles at Russia.
Opening a meeting of Russia’s Security Council, Putin said the changes were in response to a rapidly changing global landscape that has created new threats and risks for Russia.
The 71-year-old Kremlin chief, a key decision-maker on Russia’s vast nuclear arsenal, said he wanted to highlight one key change in particular.
“A proposed aggression against Russia by any non-nuclear state, but with the participation or support of a nuclear state, would be considered its joint attack on the Russian Federation,” Putin said.
“The conditions for Russia’s use of nuclear weapons have been clearly set,” Putin said, adding that Moscow would consider such action if Moscow detected the launch of a mass launch of missiles, aircraft or drones against it.
Russia reserves the right to use nuclear weapons if Russia or its ally Belarus comes under aggression, Putin said.
Putin said the clarifications were carefully calibrated and proportionate to the modern military threats Russia faces and confirmed a shift in nuclear doctrine.
Russia’s current published nuclear doctrine, set out in Putin’s 2020 decree, states that Russia could use nuclear weapons in the event of a nuclear attack by an adversary or a conventional attack that threatens the state’s existence.
Among the innovations described by Putin were broadening the threats Russia considers a nuclear attack, including ally Belarus under the nuclear umbrella, and the idea that a rival nuclear force that supports a conventional attack on Russia would be considered to attack it. .
In 2022, the United States was so concerned about Russia’s use of tactical nuclear weapons that it warned Putin about the consequences of using such weapons, according to CIA Director Bill Burns.
The two-and-a-half-year war in Ukraine has sparked the most intense confrontation between Russia and the West since the two Cold War superpowers were considered the closest to nuclear war since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
For months, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged Kevin’s allies to allow Western missiles, including US ATACMS and British Storm Shadows, to be fired deep into Russia to limit Moscow’s offensive.
The war is entering what Russian officials say is its most dangerous phase as Ukraine loses key cities to Russian forces and gradually advances to the east of the country.
Zelensky has urged the West to ignore Russia’s so-called “red lines,” and some Western allies have urged the United States to do the same, although Putin’s Russia, which controls just under a fifth of Ukrainian territory, has warned. The West and Ukraine risk global war.
“Russia has no tool to threaten the world except the nuclear threat,” Zelensky’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak said in response to Putin’s comments. “These tools don’t work.”
Putin, who portrays the West as a degenerate aggressor, and US President Joe Biden, who portrays Russia as a corrupt autocrat and Putin as a murderer, have warned that direct conflict between Russia and NATO could turn into World War III. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has also warned of the risk of nuclear war.
Russia is the world’s largest nuclear power. Together, Russia and the United States control 88% of the world’s nuclear arsenal.
In his comments to the Russian Security Council, a modern Politburo of Putin’s most powerful officials, including influential hawks, Putin said revisions to replace the doctrine had been underway for the past year.
“The nuclear triangle is the most important guarantee for ensuring the safety of our state and citizens, it is a tool for maintaining strategic balance and the balance of power in the world,” Putin said.
Russia will consider using nuclear weapons “as soon as it receives reliable information about space attack vehicles and crossing our state borders, i.e. strategic or tactical aircraft, cruise missiles, drones, hypersonic and other aircraft. ”
