As NATO prepares to allow Ukraine to strike Russia with its weapons, President Putin has proposed updates to Russia's nuclear policy, stating that any aggression against Russia with support from nuclear states could trigger a nuclear response. This comes amid increasing calls within Russia for a strong response to NATO incursions. US officials, including Secretary of State Blinken, have indicated support for Ukraine's use of NATO weapons, while President Biden plans to announce additional military aid to Ukraine. The ongoing UN General Assembly has seen heightened rhetoric from NATO leaders, contrasting with concerns from developing nations about humanitarian crises elsewhere.
Amid ongoing high-level meetings between NATO leaders and Ukrainian officials at the United Nations over plans to allow Kiev to strike Russian cities with NATO weapons, Russian President Vladimir Putin outlined Wednesday a proposed update to Russia’s nuclear policy document that would expand the conditions under which Moscow would use nuclear weapons.
A Yars intercontinental ballistic missile is test-fired as part of Russia's nuclear drills from a launch site in Plesetsk, northwestern Russia on Oct. 26, 2022. [AP Photo/Russian Defense Ministry Press Service]
Speaking before a meeting of the Russian Security Council, Putin said, “The updated version of the document proposes that aggression against Russia by any non-nuclear-weapon state, but with the participation or support of a nuclear-weapon state, should be considered as a joint attack on the Russian Federation.”
Putin said that the conditions for launching a nuclear strike would include “reliable information about a massive launch of aerospace attack means their crossing of our state border.”
He added, “We reserve the right to use nuclear weapons in the event of aggression against Russia and Belarus.”
The proposal is the most blunt and concrete threat to date by Putin to use Russia’s nuclear arsenal, one of the two largest in the world, to respond to far-advanced plans by the NATO powers to allow Ukraine to use NATO weapons to strike deep inside Russia.
Putin’s proposal follows a series of demands from high-ranking figures within the Russian political establishment that the president respond to increasingly regular incursions over the Russian border using NATO missiles, bombs, tanks and armored vehicles.
In September, former Kremlin adviser Sergey Karaganov declared, “We have allowed the situation to deteriorate to a point when our adversaries believe we will not use nuclear weapons under any circumstances. ... It’s high time we stated that any massive strikes against our territory give us a right to respond with a nuclear strike.”
Earlier this month, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Kiev, together with UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy, where he opened the door to allowing Ukraine to use NATO weapons to strike deep inside Russia. “From day one, as you heard me say, we have adjusted and adapted as needs have changed, as the battlefield has changed, and I have no doubt that we will continue to do so as this evolves,” Blinken said.
Reporting on the discussions, the Guardian reported, “British government sources indicated that a decision had already been made to allow Ukraine to use Storm Shadow cruise missiles on targets inside Russia.”
Ultimately, no public announcement was made that week, and US officials decided to wait until a series of meetings around the UN General Assembly, which is now ongoing.
On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to announce a “victory plan” for Ukraine, which, according to US and European news reports, will include a public call for allowing Ukraine to attack Russia with long-range NATO weapons, as well as a call for Ukraine to join NATO. “Central to the plan is likely to be the demand that the Biden administration remove limits on Ukraine’s use of Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) to strike deep into Russia,” reported the Financial Times.
The expected proposal by Zelensky has been accompanied by a full-court press in the US and European media and political establishment in support of the proposal. “Biden should okay long-range missiles for Ukraine,” declared the Washington Post. Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson declared in the Spectator, “It’s time to let Ukraine join NATO.”
Johnson declared, “We could invite Ukraine to join before the war is even over,” asserting an “Article 5 security guarantee” and the “absolute right of the Ukrainians to the whole of their 1991 nation.” Such an action would, in fact, be a declaration of war by NATO against Russia in the first full-scale conflict between two nuclear powers in history.
The chorus was joined by Democratic Congressman Steve Cohen, the House ranking member of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, who declared, “I think they need to go forward with offensive weapons and strike into Russia and bring the war home to the Russian people. ... This war would have been much closer to ending—on Ukraine’s terms, but ending—if we’d have given them those weapons earlier.”
In remarks Wednesday, US President Joe Biden declared, “We stand with Ukraine now and in the future and that starts on the battlefield. I’m determined to ensure that Ukraine has what it needs to prevail in its fight for survival. Tomorrow, I will announce a series of actions to accelerate support for Ukraine’s military.”
These will include an additional $8 billion in weapons shipments to Ukraine, including “munitions, weapons ... combat drones, and material to support munitions production in Ukraine,” Reuters reported. To date, the United States has provided more than $175 billion for the war in Ukraine since early 2022.
At the ongoing UN General Assembly, leaders of the major NATO powers have delivered a series of unhinged and warmongering speeches, rivalling only that given by US President Joe Biden on Tuesday.
“Vladimir Putin, when you fire missiles into Ukraine hospitals, we know who you are,” screamed British Foreign Secretary David Lammy on Tuesday. “Imperialism, I know it when I see it.”
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock accused Putin of “hiding,” declaring, “The strongest man in your country can hide behind teenage girls who he kidnapped. But you cannot fool the world.”
Despite the warmongering speeches at the United Nations, the New York Times struck a note of concern in describing the response among developing nations:
Yet a yawning gap between Western capitals and the rest of the world over the wars in Ukraine and elsewhere has been starkly evident throughout the annual United Nations gathering. Leaders from the Global South nations have taken little note of Ukraine, while devoting far more attention to the humanitarian crises in the Gaza Strip and Sudan.Many of them noted that the death toll of Palestinians in the nearly year-old war in Gaza has soared past 41,000, according to the health ministry there. In that light, the United States and other Western powers have been accused of hypocrisy by seeking broad condemnation of Russia for killing civilians in Ukraine while continuing to supply Israel with weapons.
Regardless, the Biden administration is absolutely committed to escalating war throughout the world. In his remarks Wednesday, Biden declared that military action is the only way to resolve the crisis in Ukraine, and he fully backed Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
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