Vladimir Putin has issued a “signal” to the West with his new statements on the nuclear doctrine, according to the Kremlin.
The Russian president announced on Wednesday that he had updated the terms of use around the country’s nuclear weapons.
Putin said he revised the “category of states and military unions subject to nuclear deterrence” based on each’s military threat and the necessary “measures for their neutralisation”.
According to Russian state news agency TASS, the president explained doing the modern military and political situation is changing quickly and Russia needs to act “in accordance with the current reality”.
“This should be viewed as a certain message [from Putin],” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov later claimed. “This is a message that warns these countries of the consequences should they participate in an attack on our country by various means, not necessarily nuclear.”
Peskov also told TASS that the meeting – a permanent conference of the Russian Security Council on nuclear deterrence – over the doctrine was the first one in more than a year.
The revised document is not yet public – although the Kremlin made sure to publicise the meeting around it – and will apparently only be “issued when ready”.
Putin also used the meeting to say Moscow “reserves the right to use nuclear weapons in case of aggression against Russia and Belarus”, its neighbouring ally, even if attacked with “conventional weapons”.
He said: “Today, the nuclear triad remains the most important security guarantee for our country and people, a tool for maintaining strategic parity and balance of power in the world.
“We also see that the current military and political situation is rapidly changing and we are bound to take this into account.
“This includes the emergence of new sources of military threats and risks for Russia and our allies.
“It is important to forecast how the situation will develop and, consequently, adapt the provisions of the document of strategic planning to current realities.”
He has repeatedly threatened to use Russia’s nuclear arsenal to try and stop the West from becoming directly involved in the Ukraine war ever since he invaded his European neighbour.
The president’s new comments follow a flurry of new slap-downs from Ukrainian allies.
PM Keir Starmer accused Putin of treating his own people like “meat in a grinder” at the UN on Wednesday, while US president Joe Biden told the UN that Putin’s “core aim” had failed and Ukrainians are “still free”.
The West is also considering letting Kyiv to fire its long-range missiles into Russia for the first time, which could end up being a game-changer for the war.
