The Kremlin said on Wednesday (4) that Russia was adjusting its nuclear doctrine because the United States and its Western allies were threatening Russia by escalating the war in Ukraine and overriding Moscow’s legitimate security interests.
Russia, the world’s biggest nuclear power, is making changes to its nuclear doctrine – which sets out the circumstances under which Moscow would use such weapons – due to growing Western support for Ukraine, which Russia invaded in 2022.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, in Moscow’s most detailed explanation to date, linked the move directly to “threats” created by the West and blamed the United States for destroying Europe’s post-Cold War security architecture.
The West, Peskov said, has rejected dialogue with Russia and adopted a line of attack against its security interests while fueling “the intense war in Ukraine.”
“It is the United States that is leading the process of provoking tensions,” he said.
Peskov indicated that the review of nuclear doctrine was at an early stage, saying current tensions would be carefully analyzed and then form the basis of proposed changes.
The current published Russian nuclear doctrine, set out in a 2020 decree by President Vladimir Putin, says Russia can use nuclear weapons in the event of a nuclear attack by an enemy or a conventional attack that threatens the existence of the state.
Russia and the United States are by far the world’s largest nuclear powers, holding about 88 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons, according to the Federation of American Scientists. Both are modernizing their nuclear arsenals, while China is rapidly expanding its nuclear arsenal.
The war in Ukraine has triggered the biggest confrontation between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, with both sides saying they cannot afford to lose the conflict.
As Russia, which now controls 18 percent of Ukraine, advances, Kiev has repeatedly requested more Western weapons and permission to use Western-supplied long-range weapons in its attacks toward Russian territory.
The United States is close to a deal to supply Ukraine with long-range cruise missiles that could strike deep into Russia, but Kiev would need to wait several months while the United States resolves technical issues before any deployment, U.S. officials said.
This content was originally published in Kremlin says Western threat forces change in nuclear doctrine on CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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