New Delhi: The war in Ukraine is entering a new chapter, with the US confirming that Kyiv earlier this week fired long-range ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System) into Russia for the first time in the 1,000 days since Russia invaded its neighbouring country on 24 February 2022. The US-made ATACMS struck a weapons depot in Russia’s Bryansk region.
The attack came less than 72 hours after the Biden administration—which is in its final weeks before the second inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump on 20 January—lifted restrictions on Ukraine’s use of long-range ATACMS to strike targets inside Russia.
On its part, the Kremlin responded by upping the nuclear ante. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree revising Russia’s nuclear doctrine in a move experts see as akin to lowering the threshold for use of nuclear weapons.
According to the revised doctrine, Moscow will now see a conventional-weapons attack by a non-nuclear state backed by a nuclear-armed state as a joint attack on Russia. It also makes mention of a scenario where a massive air attack on Russia involving drones, ballistic and cruise missiles could warrant use of nuclear weapons in retaliation.
Watch Episode 1556 of Cut The Clutter, where Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta examines why Ukraine’s use of US-made long-range ATACMS, coupled with Russia’s nuclear saber-rattling, marks a major escalation in the ongoing war.
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