Exclusive:
Putin has relaxed the threshold for Russia’s use of its nuclear weapons, a move that follows Joe Biden’s decision to let Ukraine strike targets inside Russian territory with US-supplied missiles
Vladimir Putin will launch nuclear missiles on Ukraine, US or the UK “if he feels like it” amid growing fears of a worldwide conflict, according to an expert.
Putin has relaxed the threshold for Russia’s use of its nuclear weapons, a move that follows Joe Biden’s decision to let Ukraine strike targets inside Russian territory with US-supplied longer-range missiles. The document, called the “Fundamentals of State Police in the Sphere of Nuclear Deterrence”, says: “Nuclear weapons (NW) are an extreme measure to protect the sovereignty of the country. At the same time, due to the emergence of new military threats and risks, Russia needed to clarify the parameters that allow the use of NW.”
The new doctrine allows for a potential nuclear response by Moscow even to a conventional attack on Russia by any nation that is supported by a nuclear power. While the doctrine envisions a possible nuclear response by Russia to such a conventional strike, it is formulated broadly to avoid a firm commitment to use nuclear weapons and keep Putin’s options open.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov emphasised that the Ukrainian strike in Bryansk marked an escalation and urged the US and other Western allies to study the modernized nuclear doctrine. Professor Anthony Glees, a security and intelligence expert at the University of Buckingham, believes Putin will launch nuclear missiles on Ukraine, US or the UK “if he feels like it.”
He told The Mirror: “Putin has codified his pseudo-legal approach, so typical of the way the KGB used to threaten and intimidate its opponents in the USSR. He’s saying, with cold brazen cheek, not just that he would deploy nukes if Russia (or Belarus) faced aggression from conventional force of arms if this were to ‘threaten our sovereignty or territorial integrity’ but that if a conventionally armed state (i.e. Ukraine) were ‘supported’ by a nuclear power (i.e. The USA – or the UK), this would be considered a ‘joint attack’ on Russia and be met by a nuclear response. In other words, he’s saying he will feel free to launch a nuclear strike either on Ukraine or even on the USA and/or the UK if he feels like it.”
The approval of the document demonstrates Putin’s readiness to tap his nuclear arsenal to force the West to back down as Moscow presses a slow-moving offensive in Ukraine as the war reached its 1,000th day. Asked Tuesday if a Ukrainian attack with longer-range US missiles could potentially trigger a nuclear response, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov answered affirmatively, pointing to the doctrine’s provision that holds the door open for it after a conventional strike that raises critical threats for the “sovereignty and territorial integrity: of Russia and its ally, Belarus.
Commenting on whether the updated doctrine was deliberately issued to follow Biden’s decision, 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.”
