LAST UPDATE | 19 Nov

UKRAINE HAS FIRED US-supplied long-range missiles into Russian territory, the first such attack since the United States gave Kyiv approval to do so over the weekend. 

Russia’s defence ministry said Ukraine fired six US-made ATACMS missiles today at a military facility in Russia’s Bryansk region, adding that air defences shot down five of them and damaged one more.

US President Joe Biden authorised Ukraine to use long-range American missiles against military targets inside Russia on Sunday. 

The decision was a major US policy shift and came as Biden prepares to leave the White House in January.

Speaking today, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov criticised Washington’s decision to let Ukraine to use the missiles, which have a range of up to 300 kilometres.

“We will be taking this as a qualitatively new phase of the Western war against Russia. And we will react accordingly,” Lavrov told a press conference at the G20 summit in Brazil.

Lavrov said the missiles could not have been fired without US technical assistance and said the strikes showed the West and Kyiv want “escalation”.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga has urged Ukraine’s Western allies to remain “clear-eyed and not give into fear” in the face what he termed Russian “saber-rattling” over its nuclear weapons.

Speaking at the US Capitol at a congressional hearing, Sybiga said: “Right now, we see new attempts by the Kremlin to use nuclear saber-rattling to scare the West.

“Their updated nuclear public rhetoric on the use of nuclear weapons is nothing more than blackmail,” he added. “They have used it many times before when strong decisions were made. We must remain cold-headed, clear-eyed, and not give in to fear.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and many of his Western supporters had been pressing Biden for months to allow Ukraine to strike military targets inside Russia with Western-supplied missiles, saying the US ban had made it impossible for Ukraine to try to stop Russian attacks on its cities and electrical grids. 

But Russia had indicated that any such move would be met with retaliation against Nato. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier today signed a decree broadening the scope of when Moscow can use nuclear weapons.

Moscow has said the use of Western weapons against its internationally recognised territory would make the US a direct participant in the conflict.

The new doctrine outlines that Russia will consider using nuclear weapons against a non-nuclear state if they are supported by nuclear powers.

“Aggression by a non-nuclear state with the participation of a nuclear state is considered as a joint attack,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters today – a clear reference to Ukraine and its Western backers.

Peskov said the update to nuclear policy was “necessary to bring our principles in line with the current situation.”

White House officials were not surprised by Putin’s decision, and the US had seen no change to Russia’s nuclear posture, according to a US National Security Council official.

As a result, the Biden administration had “not seen any reason to adjust our own nuclear posture or doctrine in response to Russia’s statements today”, the official added. Still, the official said, the White House viewed it as “irresponsible rhetoric”.

But the official underscored that the arrival of thousands of North Korea soldiers to take part in combat operations against Ukraine was a major escalation by Moscow that demanded a response.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has criticised “irresponsible rhetoric coming from Russia”.

Starmer said Moscow’s loosening of rules on nuclear weapons use as a “necessary response” to the move “is not going to deter our support for Ukraine”, adding: “We need to ensure that Ukraine has what is needed for as long as it’s needed to win this war against Putin.”

US president-elect Donald Trump has vowed to cut US assistance to Ukraine and bring about a swift end to the war, without detailing how he would do so.

With reporting from © AFP 2024 and Press Association.