U.S. are not surprised by Russia's lowering of the threshold for a nuclear strike and do not intend to change their own position in response, the White House said today, quoted by Reuters, BTA writes.
„As we said earlier this month, we are not surprised by Russia's announcement that it will renew its nuclear doctrine. "Russia has been signaling that it intends to update its doctrine for several weeks," the National Security Council said in a statement to the White House.
Russian President Vladimir Putin today lowered the threshold for launching a nuclear strike in response to wider types of conventional attacks, and Moscow said Ukraine had struck deep into Russian territory with US-made ATACMS missiles. Ukrainian and American officials confirmed that a strike had been carried out.
„As we see no change in Russian behavior of Russian nuclear forces, we see no reason to change the behavior of our own nuclear forces or our own doctrine in response to today's Russian statements,” the US statement added.< /p>
Russia's updated nuclear doctrine, which sets out the framework for conditions under which Putin could order a strike with the world's largest nuclear arsenal, was approved by the Russian president today, according to a published decree.< /p>
The doctrine states that any attack by a non-nuclear power with the support of a nuclear power will be considered a joint attack, and that any attack by one of the members of a military bloc will be considered attack by the entire union.
Russia has been warning the West for months that if Washington allows Ukraine to launch American, British and French missiles deep into Russian territory, Moscow will accept that these NATO countries are directly involved in the war in Ukraine.
The White House statement said this rhetoric was irresponsible.