- Russia’s existing nuclear doctrine was solidified by Putin in a 2020 decree
Russia is set to amend its doctrine on the use of nuclear weapons in response to what it regards as ‘Western escalation’ in the war in Ukraine, a top official declared yesterday.
The existing nuclear doctrine, set out in a decree by President Vladimir Putin in 2020, says Russia may use nuclear weapons in the event of a nuclear attack by an enemy or a conventional attack that threatens the existence of the state.
But some of Moscow‘s more hawkish military analysts – not to mention politicians – have urged Putin to lower the threshold for nuclear use in order to ‘sober up’ Russia’s enemies in the West.
Putin said in June the doctrine was a ‘living instrument’ that could change depending on world events, and now Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov appears to have confirmed that work on a new document outlining adjustments is underway.
‘The work is at an advanced stage, and there is a clear direction to make adjustments, which are also conditioned by the study and analysis of the experience of conflict development in recent years,’ Ryabkov said in comments carried by Russia’s TASS news service yesterday.
‘This includes everything related to the escalation course of our Western opponents in connection with the ”special military operation”.’
October 2022 – the launch of a Russian nuclear capable Yars missile at Plesetsk cosmodrome
Soldiers stand next to a Russian RS-24 Yars ballistic missile parked along Tverskaya street prior to a rehearsal for the Victory Day military parade in Moscow, on Thursday, May 2, 2024
Drills of Russia’s strategic missile forces in the Irkutsk region
Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024
Putin said in June the doctrine was a ‘living instrument’ that could change depending on world events, and now Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov appears to have confirmed that work on a new document outlining adjustments is underway
Though the news that Russian lawmakers are considering adjustments to the nuclear doctrine may give Western politicians cause for concern, Ryabkov did not say when the updated document would be ready.
‘The time for completing this work is a rather difficult question, given that we are talking about the most important aspects of ensuring our national security,’ he said.
Putin said on day one of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 that anyone who tried to hinder or threaten it would suffer ‘consequences that you have never faced in your history’.
Since then, he has issued a series of further statements that the West regards as nuclear threats and announced the deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
That has not deterred the US and its allies from stepping up military aid to Ukraine in ways that were unthinkable when the war started, including by supplying tanks, long-range missiles and F-16 fighter jets.
But Ukrainian officials and pro-Ukrainian analysts have asked why the West was so reluctant to green-light the delivery of such hardware, arguing that Ukraine could have defended itself far more effectively had the likes of F-16s and missile systems been provided earlier in the war.
As if to prove its enduring military capabilities, Ukraine shocked Moscow last month by piercing its western border in a lightning incursion into the Kursk region.
More than 10,000 Ukrainian troops flooded the border region and secured hundreds of square kilometres of land in an offensive that Russia is still fighting to repel.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said the operation made a mockery of Putin’s ‘red lines’ and has doubled down on his efforts to lobby the US and European lawmakers to grant Kyiv permission to use advanced Western weapons to strike targets deep inside Russia.
The Ukrainian offensive in Kursk came less than two months after Putin vowed to go ‘to the end’ on the battlefield in Ukraine and signalled that the Kremlin may review its doctrine for the use of nuclear weapons.
Russian media handout of a Yars ICBM test launch
A Russian Yars intercontinental ballistic missile system drives in Red Square during a military parade on Victory Day
Russia boasts a fearsome nuclear arsenal with more atomic weapons than any other country (Pictured: the mushroom cloud from the Soviet Union’s Tsar Bomba – the largest nuclear weapon ever tested)
Russia is believed to have some 5,800 nuclear warheads, more than 1500 of which are operational and ready for deployment with Putin declaring in March that his nation was ready for the eventuality of a nuclear war
Speaking at the conclusion of a pair of summer state visits to North Korea and Vietnam, the Russian President accused Western countries of ‘lowering the threshold’ for the use of nuclear devices against Russia – a charge for which he provided no evidence – and announced that defeat in Ukraine would mean ‘the end of Russia’s statehood’.
‘It means the end of the 1,000-year history of the Russian state. I think this is clear to everyone… Isn’t it better to go all the way, until the end?’ he asked rhetorically.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview published on Sunday that the West was ‘going too far’ in its support for Ukraine and that Russia would do everything to protect its interests.
Russia boasts a fearsome nuclear arsenal with more atomic weapons than any other country.
It is said to have some 5,800 nuclear warheads, 1500 of which are operational and ready for deployment with Putin declaring in March that his nation was ready for the eventuality of a nuclear war ‘from a military-technical point of view’.
He said, however, that he saw no rush towards nuclear confrontation and that Russia had never faced a need to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
Moscow accuses the West of using Ukraine as a proxy to wage war against it, with the aim of inflicting a ‘strategic defeat’ on Russia and breaking it apart.
The United States and its allies deny that, saying they are helping Ukraine defend itself against a colonial-style war of aggression by Russia.