Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday announced a major change in Russia's nuclear policy, a move that sharpens the terms of use of the world's largest nuclear arsenal and raises tensions between Russia and the West. Under the change, Russia could consider using nuclear weapons in response to a wider range of conventional attacks.
Putin's dramatic decision comes days after U.S. officials confirmed that the Biden administration had given Ukraine the green light to use American-made long-range missiles to attack deep inside Russian territory.
At the same time, Moscow announced that Ukraine had carried out an attack in Bryansk Oblast using ATACMS missiles supplied to it from the United States. According to the updated doctrine, a conventional attack on Russia or its ally Belarus, creating a "critical threat to their sovereignty or territorial integrity," could lead to a nuclear response.
In addition, any attack by a non-nuclear state, supported by a nuclear power, would be considered a joint attack, and any attack by a member of a military alliance would be considered an attack by the entire Alliance.
Analysts believe the changes in the doctrine are intended to deter NATO from further involvement in the conflict in Ukraine. "Russia is actually lowering the threshold for using nuclear weapons," said Alexander Greif, a senior security policy researcher at the University of Hamburg.
* Channel 14 contributed to this article.
