Russia Warns West Of Nuclear Bombs; Introduces New Rules
Vladimir Putin, Russian President warned the West that Moscow would respond with nuclear weapons. Putin said Russia would attack if it were attacked with conventional arms in the latest changes to the country’s nuclear doctrine.
In a televised meeting of the country’s Security Council, Putin announced that under planned revisions, an attack against Russia by a non-nuclear power with the “participation or support of a nuclear power” would be seen as a “joint attack on the Russian Federation”.
He also emphasised that Russia could use nuclear weapons in response to a conventional attack that posed a “critical threat to our sovereignty”. His remark indicates a vague formulation that leaves broad room for interpretation.
Putin, as the President, is the primary decision-maker on Russia’s nuclear arsenal and needs to give his final approval to the text.
Also Read: China, Russia Concerned Over Strengthening India-America Relationship: US
The announcement came a month after Ukraine launched a surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, and as Kyiv’s Western allies whether to allow Kyiv to use longer-range weapons to strike military targets deep inside Russia.
Though the Russian President did not refer to Ukraine directly, he said the revisions to the doctrine were necessary in view of a swiftly changing global landscape that had created new threats and risks for Russia.
Since it launched its full-scale war in Ukraine in 2022, Russia is making slow but incremental gains in Kyiv.
This is not the first Putin has made threats of using nuclear weapons. He made several such threats since launching his war and has suspended Russian participation in the New START treaty – a nuclear arms reduction treaty with the United States, and thus limiting the number of nuclear warheads each side can deploy.
At the same time, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged Western powers to disregard Russia’s threats, and his chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said Putin’s latest remarks were little more than blackmail.
Also Read: Huge Disappointment: Ukraine’s Zelenskyy Criticises PM Modi Meeting Putin
“Russia no longer has any instruments to intimidate the world apart from nuclear blackmail,” Yermak said. “These instruments will not work”, he said, as said, as quoted by Al Jazeera.
According to Russia’s existing nuclear doctrine, set out in a 2020 decree, the country could use its nuclear arsenal in case of a nuclear attack by an enemy or a conventional attack “when the very existence of the state is in jeopardy”.
Putin stressed that the revised doctrine spelled out conditions for using nuclear weapons in greater detail, and that they could be used in case of a massive air attack.
“Conditions for Russia’s move to use nuclear weapons are clearly stated” in the revisions, he said.
He further added that Russia “will consider such a possibility when we receive reliable information about a massive launch of air and space attack assets and them crossing our state border”.
(With inputs from agencies)
