Putin ratchets up nuclear threat after Ukraine fires US-supplied missiles at Russia

KYIV, Ukraine — Moscow said Tuesday that Ukraine had fired US-supplied long-range missiles into its territory for the first time since Washington authorized such strikes, as Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree broadening the justification for using nuclear weapons.

With neither side showing any sign of relenting, Putin officially authorized the use of nuclear weapons in the case of a conventional attack by any nation that is supported by a nuclear power.

Putin signed the decree shortly before Moscow confirmed that Ukraine had fired six US-made ATACMS missiles early Tuesday at a military facility in Russia’s Bryansk region that borders Ukraine. It said air defenses shot down five of them and damaged one more.

Washington this week said it had cleared Ukraine to use long-range ATACMS, or Army Tactical Missile System, weapons against military targets inside Russia — a long-standing Ukrainian request, but one that could change the contours of the war, now in its 1,000th day.

Elsewhere, a Russian strike in the eastern Ukrainian region of Sumy gutted a Soviet-era residential building and killed at least 12 people, including a child.

President Volodymyr Zelensky published images of rescue workers hauling bodies from the debris and called on Kyiv’s allies to “force” the Kremlin into peace.

The foreign ministry released an anniversary statement calling on allies to ramp up military support to bring about a “sustainable” end to the war.

“Ukraine will never submit to the occupiers, and the Russian military will be punished for violating international law,” the ministry said.

“We need peace through strength, not appeasement,” it added, referring to growing calls for Ukraine to sit down at the negotiating table with Russia to end the war.

The Kremlin also vowed to defeat Ukraine.

“The military operation against Kyiv continues… and will be completed,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, using Russia’s preferred language for its invasion.

Nuclear saber-rattling

Russia’s military said Ukraine used ATACMS missiles against a facility in the Bryansk region close to the border overnight.

“At 03:25 am (0025 GMT), the enemy struck a site in the Bryansk region with six ballistic missiles. According to confirmed data, US-made ATACMS tactical missiles were used,” said a defense ministry statement.

Moscow said Monday the use of Western weapons against its internationally recognized territory would make the US a direct participant in the conflict and pledged an “appropriate and palpable response.”

The new nuclear doctrine allows Moscow to unleash a nuclear response in the event of a “massive” air attack, even if it is only with conventional weapons.

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.

Asked Tuesday if a Ukrainian attack with longer-range U.S. 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.”

Putin first announced changes in the nuclear doctrine in September, when he chaired a meeting discussing the proposed revisions. He has previously warned the US and other NATO allies that allowing Ukraine to use Western-supplied longer-range weapons to hit Russian territory would mean that Russia and NATO are at war.

Washington permitted Ukraine to use the longer-range weapons on targets inside Russia after declaring that thousands of North Korean troops were deployed in the Russian region of Kursk to fight an incursion by Kyiv’s forces.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer denounced the revised nuclear doctrine as the “latest example of irresponsibility” from “the depraved Russian government,” according to spokesperson Camilla Marshall.

“Russia’s the one that continues to escalate this war, and the use of North Korean troops is just one example of that,” Marshall said. “He could remove his troops, roll back his tanks and end the onslaught and needless bloodshed in both Ukraine and Russia… We would urge him to do so.”

Deadly strike on Sumy

Russia has stepped up strikes on Ukraine in recent days as its troops advance in the east of the country.

One overnight Russian attack hit a dormitory in the town of Glukhiv, which had a pre-war population of around 30,000 people and lies just 10 kilometers (six miles) from the Kursk region in Russia, where Ukrainian troops captured territory in a major ground offensive in August.

The drone attack killed 12 people including a child, the emergency services said.

In total, Kyiv said Russia had launched 87 drones over Ukraine during the night, and that 51 were shot down.

A separate missile strike on Monday on Odesa in southern Ukraine left 10 dead and 55 wounded.

US President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to cut US assistance to Ukraine and bring about a swift end to the war, without detailing how he would do so.

A group of European foreign ministers meeting in Warsaw on Tuesday discussed stepping up aid to Ukraine if Washington’s support wanes.

“I note with appreciation the readiness of the largest European Union countries to assume the burden of military and financial support for Ukraine in the context of a possible reduction in US involvement,” Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said after the talks.

‘Direct threat’ to West

Ukrainian forces have steadily lost ground in the Kursk region and have warned that Russia has massed some 50,000 troops, including North Korean forces, to wrest back the region.

The anniversary of Russia’s invasion — launched on February 24, 2022 — comes at a perilous time for Ukrainian forces across the front, particularly near the war-battered cities of Kupiansk and Pokrovsk.

NATO chief Mark Rutte warned Tuesday that Putin must not be allowed to prevail.

“Why is this so crucial that Putin will not get his way? Because you will have an emboldened Russia on our border… and I’m absolutely convinced it will not stop there,” Rutte told reporters in Brussels.

“It is then posing a direct threat to all of us in the West,” he said.

The EU’s outgoing top diplomat Josep Borrell also pressed member states to align with Washington in allowing Kyiv to strike inside Russia using donated long-range missiles.

“It is fully in accordance with international law,” he said.