Putin: Ballistic missile attack on Russia will trigger nuclear retaliation

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday approved an updated nuclear doctrine, saying that Moscow could consider using nuclear weapons if it was subject to a conventional missile assault supported by a nuclear power.

"It was necessary to bring our principles in line with the current situation," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters,

The decision to change Russia's official nuclear doctrine is the Kremlin's answer to a reported decision by the administration of US President Joe Biden to allow Ukraine to fire American long-range missiles deep into Russia,

The move comes on the 1000th day of the Russia-Ukraine war.

The updated doctrine, which outlines the threats which would make Russia's leadership consider a nuclear strike, said an attack with conventional missiles, drones or other aircraft could be considered to meet these criteria.

Changes to nuclear doctrine

It also said any aggression against Russia by a state which was a member of a coalition would be considered by Moscow to be aggression against it by the whole coalition.

Just weeks before the November US presidential elections, Putin ordered changes to the nuclear doctrine to say that any conventional attack on Russia aided by a nuclear power could be considered to be a joint attack on Russia.

The two-and-a-half-year-old Ukraine war has triggered the gravest confrontation between Russia and the US since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis - considered to be the closest the two Cold War superpowers came to intentional nuclear war.