On September 20, 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted a meeting with members of the Security Council via video link at the Constantine Palace in Strena, a suburb of St. Petersburg, Russia.
Alexander Kazakov | Reuters
The Kremlin said on Tuesday it had drafted changes to Russia’s nuclear doctrine and would formally implement them if necessary, another sign of Moscow’s concerns over the latest U.S. decision to launch missile strikes from Ukraine.
“The changes have been practically enacted. They will be formalized if necessary,” Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov told the TASS state news agency in a speech on Tuesday.
The Kremlin said on Monday that President Joe Biden’s administration’s decision to reportedly allow Ukraine to launch U.S. missiles deep into Russia was reckless and warned Moscow would respond.
Russia started full invasion The president of Ukraine 1,000 days ago had repeatedly warned that the West was playing with fire by exploring the limits of what nuclear powers might or might not tolerate.
In September, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Western approval of Kyiv’s use of long-range missiles would mean “direct involvement of NATO countries, the United States and European countries in the war in Ukraine” because NATO military infrastructure and personnel would have to be involved in targeting the missiles and launch.
Biden’s decision follows months of requests by President Volodymyr Zelensky to allow Ukrainian forces to use U.S. weapons against Russian military targets far from its borders.
Sources told Reuters the U.S. decision was largely in response to Russia deploying North Korean ground troops to supplement its own forces, a development that alarmed Washington and Kiev.
Russia calls its war in Ukraine a special military operation, while Kiev and its Western allies call it an unprovoked imperialist land grab.
Russian forces control about a fifth of Ukraine and have been advancing rapidly of late. Thousands of people were killed in the war, the vast majority of them Ukrainians.
Just weeks before the U.S. presidential election in November, Putin ordered a revision of nuclear doctrine and said any conventional attack on Russia assisted by nuclear forces could be considered a joint attack on Russia.
Western analysts say the changes are an escalation in Moscow’s attempt to prevent the West from expanding military aid to Ukraine. Full details of the revised doctrine have not yet been made public.
The war in Ukraine triggered the most serious crisis in relations between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.
Peskov told the TASS news agency on Tuesday that Moscow was ready to normalize relations with Washington.
“But we cannot tango alone,” Peskov said. “And we’re not going to do that.”
