Experts largely concur that the revisions aim to warn Western nations providing long-range missiles to Ukraine.
Russia’s revised nuclear doctrine will likely prompt the U.S. and other Western countries to reassess their military aid to Ukraine, according to defense and political analysts following Vladimir Putin’s official signing of the new rules on Tuesday.
The updated doctrine asserts Moscow’s right to consider nuclear options if Russia or Belarus faces conventional attacks posing a “critical threat” to their sovereignty or territorial integrity.
Furthermore, any aggression by a non-nuclear state, with a nuclear state’s involvement, against Russia will be considered a joint attack, potentially triggering the doctrine.
Following the release of the revised guidelines, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov clarified that the doctrine allows Russia to contemplate a nuclear response to Kyiv’s use of Western-supplied non-nuclear missiles against Russian territory.
According to author and war correspondent Thomas Roeper, President Biden’s actions are hindering President-elect Trump’s pursuit of a peaceful resolution to the Ukraine conflict. “This decision… [allowing Ukraine to shoot] at Russia with long-distance rockets, and the possible answer of Russia, will make it more complicated for Trump to get out of this conflict,” he told RT on Tuesday.
Dmitry Medvedev, former Russian president and current deputy chairman of the National Security Council, stated that the new rules could potentially initiate a third world war if Kyiv uses NATO weaponry to attack Russia.
“In this case, the right arises to launch a retaliatory strike with weapons of mass destruction against Kiev and the main NATO facilities, wherever they are. And this is already WWIII,” he posted on Telegram, cautioning Ukraine and its allies to prepare for such retaliation.
Andrey Klimov, deputy chairman of the parliamentary international affairs committee, suggested that the revised doctrine’s provisions will be “carefully studied in the near future in unfriendly states,” expressing hope that they will learn that “one should not play with fire.”
Yuri Shvytkin, deputy head of the State Duma Defense Committee, asserted that France and the UK should understand that any attack on Russia using their weapons would provoke immediate retaliation from Moscow.
“I think that an unambiguous, clear signal has been given to Western countries about the inadmissibility of supplying these types of weapons to the Ukrainian Armed Forces militants,” Shvytkin stated.
Meanwhile, Vladimir Bulavin, head of the Federation Council Committee on Defense and Security, told TASS that Moscow continues to view nuclear weapons solely as a deterrent, considering their use only as a last resort.
He clarified that the new rules aim to “ensure strategic stability and predictability,” and do not signify “an automatic change in the nature of the actions being taken.”