Russia's President Vladimir Putin has signalled a readiness to use nuclear weapons. Photo / AFP
Russia's President Vladimir Putin has signalled a readiness to use nuclear weapons. Photo / AFP
Vladimir Putin signalled on Tuesday he was ready to start a nuclear war after Ukraine struck Russia with Western missiles for the first time.
Kyiv fired US-made Atacms missiles at an ammunition dump near Bryansk, in southern Russia, roughly 160km from the border, shortly before dawn.
Video footage showed the facility bursting into flames, with a telltale trail of white smoke above the explosion indicating the use of a missile.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, has long pleaded for Western leaders to grant his forces the right to use long-range missiles such as the Atacms against targets inside Russian territory.
US President Joe Biden finally relented on Monday, according to reports, citing the entry of North Korean troops to the battlefield.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy inspects the construction of fortifications at an undisclosed location in Donetsk region. Photo / AFP
Hours after the attack, Putin signed into law a nuclear doctrine that lowered the threshold for Russia to use atomic weapons. Under its terms, a nuclear response can be triggered by an attack with “conventional weapons” if it threatens Russia’s “territorial integrity”.
The doctrine also states that Moscow can use nuclear weapons if it is attacked by a non-nuclear armed nation, such as Ukraine, that is supported by a nuclear ally such as the US or Britain.
Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia’s security council, warned the Kremlin’s enemies that they could now trigger World War III, saying: “Russia could retaliate [to Atacms strikes] with weapons of mass destruction against Kyiv and key Nato facilities, wherever they’re located.”
Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said at the G20 summit that the attack on the ammunition dump was a sign the West wanted to extend the war, adding: “The fact that Atacms was used repeatedly in the Bryansk region overnight is, of course, a signal that they want escalation”.
According to US officials, the Bryansk ammunition dump held munitions specifically required for the weaponry used by Pyongyang’s arriving soldiers.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attends a meeting with Colombian Foreign Relations Minister in Moscow this month. Photo / AFP
Lavrov pointed out that US guidance systems would have been involved in pointing the Atacms at their targets. He said: “Without the Americans, it is impossible to use these high-tech missiles, as Putin has repeatedly said”.
Russian news agencies reported that Moscow had begun sending mobile nuclear bunkers across the country, in another apparent signal to the West.
Kub-M class shelters designed to protect up to 54 people from “light radiation from a nuclear explosion and radiation” were delivered to a number of locations, the All-Russian Research Institute of Civil Defence and Emergencies announced.
Speaking at the G20 in Brazil, UK PM Sir Keir Starmer condemned Moscow’s “irresponsible rhetoric” on nuclear war.
He refused to be drawn on whether Britain had authorised Ukraine to begin firing its own long-range missile, the Storm Shadow, saying: “My position has always been that Ukraine must have what it needs for as long as it needs,” he said.
Biden is expected to approve the use of Storm Shadows, which rely on US-controlled guidance systems.
Sergey Markov, a former spokesman for Putin, issued a warning to the “British people” not to “attack Russia” in a television interview.
“If British missiles hit Russian cities, you will have a response of Russian rocket missiles to your cities,” he warned. “Think this in your mind.”
In Kyiv, Zelenskyy told the European Parliament in a video conference call that Ukraine would now use “all” its long-range arsenal.
“There are our drones, we now have long-range Neptune missiles and now Atacms. We will use all of this,” he said.
Houses destroyed by shelling in the city of Constantinople. Photo / AFP
The Ukrainian president piled further pressure on Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, to deliver Taurus missiles, Berlin’s equivalent to the Atacms.
It is time for Germany to send the weapons, he said, hitting out European leaders who “think about some elections, or something like this, at Ukraine’s expense”. Scholz has called a snap election for February 23.
Late on Monday, a Russian strike on a residential building in the eastern Ukrainian region of Sumy killed at least 12 people, including a child. As the war entered its 1000th day on Tuesday, Ukrainian MPs voted to approve the 2025 budget with more than £39 billion ($84b) – or 60% of all expenditure – allocated to defence and security.
