Russia warns Ukraine’s ATACMS attack marks ‘new phase’ of war | War news between Russia and Ukraine

Russia has said Ukraine’s use of long-range ATACMS missiles against its territory marked a “new phase of the Western war” against Moscow, and has said it will respond “accordingly”.

Ukraine used the US-made missiles to target a military facility in the Russian border region of Bryansk overnight, Moscow said on Tuesday, just days after Washington gave Kiev the green light to use long-range weapons against Russian targets.

The reported use of the Army Tactical Missile System, known as ATACMS, came as Russian President Vladimir Putin formally lowered the threshold for using nuclear weapons, opening the door to a potential nuclear response by Moscow to even a conventional attack by any nation backed by a nuclear power.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Ukraine had hit Russia’s Bryansk region with six missiles and that air defense systems intercepted five and damaged one.

“This is of course a signal that they want to escalate,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, speaking at a Group of 20 (G20) news conference in Brazil, said of the attack.

“We will take this as a qualitatively new phase of the Western war against Russia. And we will respond accordingly,” he added, accusing Washington of helping Kiev operate the missiles.

Russia has long claimed that ATACMS is programmed by US specialists and requires guidance from US satellites.

On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country was working with all partners to win their support for longer-range strikes.

Asked about the attack in Russia’s Bryansk region, Zelenskyy said Kyiv now had US ATACMS systems as well as its own long-range capabilities and would use them all.

Ukraine’s military did not publicly specify what weapons it had used, but a Ukrainian official source and a US official, both speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Reuters news agency that they have used ATACMS.

New nuclear doctrine

Lavrov also urged the West to read a decree signed by Putin that lowers the threshold for when Moscow can use nuclear weapons.

“I hope that they will read this doctrine … in its entirety,” Lavrov said.

Russia had warned the West for months that if Washington allowed Ukraine to launch US, British and French missiles deep into Russia, Moscow would consider those NATO members directly involved in the war in Ukraine.

Washington allowed Ukraine to use the longer-range weapons on targets inside Russia after declaring that thousands of North Korean soldiers were stationed in the Russian region of Kursk to fight an incursion by Kyiv’s forces.

The updated Russian nuclear doctrine, which establishes a framework for conditions under which Putin could order an attack from the world’s largest nuclear arsenal, was approved by him on Tuesday, according to a published decree.

Although the doctrine foresees a possible nuclear response by Russia to such a conventional attack, it is worded broadly to avoid a firm commitment to use nuclear weapons and keep Putin’s options open.

The approval of the document demonstrates Putin’s readiness to use his nuclear arsenal to force the West to back down as Moscow presses a slow-moving offensive in Ukraine as the war reaches its 1,000th. day.

Asked Tuesday whether a Ukrainian attack by long-range US missiles could potentially trigger a nuclear response, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov replied in the affirmative, saying the doctrine allows for such a response to a conventional strike that threatens the “sovereignty and territorial integrity” of Russia and its ally, Belarus.

The previous doctrine, contained in a 2020 decree, said Russia can use nuclear weapons in the event of a nuclear attack by an enemy or a conventional attack that threatened the existence of the state.

The White House said Tuesday that the United States was not surprised that Russia lowered its threshold for a nuclear attack and does not plan to adjust its own nuclear posture in response.

“As we said earlier this month, we were not surprised by Russia’s announcement that it would update its nuclear doctrine; Russia had been signaling its intention to update its doctrine for several weeks,” the White House National Security Council said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell accused Russia of issuing “totally irresponsible” nuclear threats.

“It is not the first time that Putin is playing the nuclear bet,” the outgoing EU foreign policy chief told reporters after defense ministers’ talks in Brussels on Tuesday, saying “any call for nuclear war is irresponsible”.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer also condemned the revised nuclear doctrine as the “latest example of irresponsibility” by the “corrupt Russian government,” according to spokeswoman Camilla Marshall.

“Russia is the one that continues to escalate this war, and the use of North Korean troops is just one example of that,” Marshall said. “(Putin) could withdraw his troops, roll back his tanks and end the attack and unnecessary bloodshed in both Ukraine and Russia.”