Dave DeCamp: Putin Orders Changes to Nuclear Doctrine in Major Warning to West

By Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, 9/25/24

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday outlined changes that will be made to Russia’s nuclear doctrine as the US and NATO consider supporting long-range Ukrainian strikes inside Russia.

Putin said in a meeting with the Russian Security Council that under the new doctrine, an attack on Russia by a non-nuclear state that’s supported by a nuclear-armed power would be treated as a joint attack, a clear reference to Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory that use NATO weapons and intelligence.

Based on Putin’s comments, it’s unclear if that means such an attack would trigger a nuclear response. But the new doctrine will allow the use of nuclear weapons in response to a conventional attack that poses a “critical threat to Russian sovereignty.”

According to TASS, the doctrine will also allow the use of nuclear weapons in response to “aggression” against Russia and Belarus, and if Russia becomes aware of plans to launch massive airstrikes against its territory.

Putin meeting with his Security Council on September 25, 2024 (photo released by the Kremlin)

“Reliable information about a massive takeoff of strategic or tactical planes towards Russia, or the launch of cruise missiles, drones, hypersonic weapons towards its territory may be interpreted as a sufficient reason for a nuclear response by Moscow,” TASS reported.

The new language is more vague than Russia’s current nuclear doctrine, which allows the use of nuclear weapons “in response to the use of nuclear and other types of weapons of mass destruction against it and/or its allies, as well as in the event of aggression against the Russian Federation with the use of conventional weapons when the very existence of the state is in jeopardy.”

The US has supported Ukraine’s attack on Kursk, which came a few months after President Biden gave Ukraine the greenlight to use US weapons on the Russian border region. But the Biden administration is still holding out on supporting long-range strikes.

Putin has said that if the US supports long-range Ukrainian strikes inside Russian territory, it would mean NATO is at war with Russia. Despite the clear warning and risk of nuclear war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and many hawks in the US and Europe are pushing hard for the escalation.