The escalation of the war in Ukraine has brought back threats of nuclear escalation, with the US now mulling after Russia a review of its nuclear doctrine.
In order to ensure an effective nuclear deterrent, an adjustment to the nuclear strategy, which was last updated in 2022, may be necessary, US Deputy Defense Secretary Richard Johnson said in Washington, citing, among other things, China's upgraded nuclear capabilities and Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin recently updated the nuclear doctrine, a new version of which sees Moscow consider aggression by a non-nuclear-armed but nuclear-backed state as a joint attack on Russia, an apparent threat to Ukraine and its Western allies.
But the Pentagon sees risks beyond Russia and China as several countries expand and modernize their nuclear arsenals, which play a bigger role in those states' security strategy, Johnson said. The deputy secretary warned that the program to modernize the US nuclear arsenal may be insufficient. In general, however, "the logic of nuclear deterrence remains consistent," he noted.
Putin's threats against Ukraine and the West
After Russia's first strike with a new medium-range missile, Russia is threatening further strikes against Ukraine and its Western backers. "We believe we have the right to use our weapons against military targets of countries that allow their weapons to be used against targets in our country," Putin said. "In case of escalation of aggressive actions, we will respond symmetrically," he explained.
Putin spoke of Russian reaction to the fact that the US and Britain allowed Ukraine to use long-range weapons against Russian soil. "We have repeatedly emphasized that the regional conflict in Ukraine provoked by the West has acquired elements of a global character," the Russian president said, explaining that his country's forces on Thursday morning targeted the Ukrainian city of Dnipro with a new medium-range missile. it is home to the former Soviet and now Ukrainian missile and armaments company Yuzhmash.
And Kim Jong Un is threatening nuclear war
Fears of a nuclear conflict are fueled by the dictator of Russia's ally, North Korea.
The risk of nuclear war on the Korean peninsula has never been as great as it is today, Kim Jong Un said on Thursday, according to state news agency KCNA. In a speech at a weapons exhibition in Pyongyang, Kim Jong Un said he had tried to negotiate with the US government, but the result only underscored the US's "aggressive and hostile" policy against North Korea.
According to an official of the US administration, the attack launched by Russia in Dnipro is mainly intended to intimidate Ukraine and its supporters and to attract the attention of the world public opinion. He estimated that Russia probably has a few of these experimental missiles and noted that Ukraine has already survived missile attacks with much larger explosive charges.
The US recently informed Kiev and its allies about possible use of the new missile by Russia. Moscow, in turn, informed Washington shortly before the missile was launched, Deputy Defense Department spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said, noting that the Russian leadership used "nuclear risk reduction channels" between Russia and the US as the unannounced launch of an ICBM could be interpreted as an attack and trigger a pre-emptive strike. The Kremlin, however, denied it.
The first success of Russia's intimidation tactics
Apparently, Putin's Russia's strategy of intimidation has already had its first success, as the Ukrainian Parliament postponed a meeting scheduled for Friday for security reasons, state media Suspilne reported.
"A meeting of the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) was scheduled for November 22, during which questions would be put to the government, but it was canceled due to security reasons," the same outlet said. Ukrainian MPs have been instructed to stay with their families away from the Kyiv Oblast. The postponement is in response to Vladimir Putin's statement that he had attacked the Ukrainian city of Dnipro with a new medium-range hypersonic missile, the broadcaster added.
Ukraine calls for a decisive reaction of the international community to the Russian attack
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has asked the international community for a decisive response to the Russian missile attack.
"This is a clear and serious expansion of the scale and brutality of this war, a cynical violation of the UN Charter by Russia," Zelensky wrote on social media.
"Putin," he noted, "is not interested in what China, Brazil, European countries, America and all other countries demand."
In recent days, Ukraine has fired US-made ATACMS missiles and British Storm Shadow cruise missiles at military targets inside Russia, injuring a North Korean general, among other things, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The UN demands de-escalation
The United Nations considers the escalation of the Ukraine-Russia war a worrying development.
"This is all going in the wrong direction. What we want to see is for all parties to take urgent steps to de-escalate the situation," UN spokesman Stephane Duzarich said in New York.
In Western countries, the characteristics of the new Russian medium-range missile are not yet clear. The Ukrainian military initially assumed it was an intercontinental ballistic missile. Putin has claimed that the Oreshnik hypersonic missile cannot be intercepted. Experts believe that the use of multiple warheads in the Dnipro attack is an indication that the missile may also be equipped with nuclear weapons. The US Pentagon speculates that the medium-range ballistic missile is based on the model of the Russian RS-26 intercontinental ballistic missile.
According to the Russian president, the development of the missile in question is also a response to the withdrawal of the US from the Treaty that bans land-based nuclear missiles with an average range of 500 to 5.500 kilometers. Putin claimed that the US wanted to deploy such missiles in Europe and the Pacific. In fact, Washington withdrew from the treaty in 2019 on suspicion that Moscow had developed rockets and cruise missiles with the banned range.
Source: iefimerida.gr
