The News
Russia will change its nuclear protocol in light of what it sees as an escalation by Western allies over its war in Ukraine, a top official said Sunday. The existing doctrine, set out by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2020, states that Moscow may use nuclear weapons only when attacked by an enemy using atomic weapons, or if the country’s sovereignty is at risk.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Russia’s state news agency, Tass, there is “clear intent to introduce a correction” to the doctrine, which he said is in direct connection to “our Western adversaries’ escalation course,” in an apparent reference to Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Russian territory.
Moscow has accused the US and other Ukraine allies of attempting to use the violence in Europe as a proxy war aimed at destroying Russia.
In June, President Putin issued a fresh warning that the possibility of Russia deploying nuclear weapons should “not be taken lightly” by the West.
SIGNALS
Nuclear war of words escalates after Kyiv’s forces near power plant
The move marks the latest salvo in an increasingly heated war of words around the nuclear threat posed by the war. Hawkish Russian military analysts have called on their country to lower the threshold for using atomic weapons as a way to “sober up” its Western enemies, Reuters reported. Moscow, meanwhile, has accused Ukraine of “nuclear terrorism” during its incursion into its Kursk region, alleging that Kyiv had attempted to attack a nuclear power plant, with unexploded munitions reportedly found three miles from the facility. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency used a visit to the plant last week to warn of the growing possibility of a serious nuclear accident owing to fighting there. In response, the Kremlin called on the watchdog to be more objective, with a spokesman saying there was no question around “the guilt of the Ukrainian side” in escalating the nuclear danger.”
No one knows Russia’s nuclear ‘red line’
Ukraine’s invasion of Russia’s Kursk region is the first time that a confirmed nuclear power has been occupied, marking an upset in long-held theories that countries with atomic weapons must be immune from external attacks or face doomsday catastrophe, The Wall Street Journal wrote. Ukraine surprise move to control almost 500 square miles of Russian territory represents a “stunning twist” by the “beleaguered underdog” the Journal wrote, that has forced Western leaders and nuclear theorists into unknown territory. “No one really knows the Russian red line,” Nikolai Sokov, a former Russian arms-control negotiator, told the paper. “We may find out later that we crossed the red line two months ago,” he added, predicting, however, that Russian escalation would likely mean an increase in non-nuclear attacks, rather than a sudden atomic assault.