Downing Street today hit back at ‘depraved’ Vladimir Putin’s threats of nuclear retaliation after Ukraine struck Russian territory with a US-supplied missile.
A spokeswoman for the PM said the tough line coming out of Moscow was ‘the latest example of irresponsibility’.
After the threshold for triggering a nuclear response was lowered, she insisted that Putin was driving escalation in the situation, not the West.
At the G20 summit, Sir Keir sidestepped questions about whether he thought the Kremlin threats were real. ‘It’s very important that we’re steadfast in our support for Ukraine. Russia is the aggressor,’ he said.
The comments came after a dramatic ramping up of rhetoric as Ukraine started deploying American long-range missiles.
The Biden administration gave Kyiv the green light at the weekend despite fears it could escalate the conflict beyond control.
A fiery explosion at an ammunition depot in Karachev around 75 miles from the Ukrainian border in Russia‘s Bryansk region lit up the night sky early this morning on what is the 1,000th day of war in Ukraine.
Eyewitnesses and Russian military bloggers first reported the attack, with Ukrainian military officials later confirming to RBC Ukraine the strike was indeed conducted with the US-manufactured ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System).
Reports of the strike emerged within minutes of the Kremlin threatening a ‘nuclear response’ should Ukraine hit targets on Russian soil with Western-supplied long-range munitions.
‘The Russian Federation reserves the right to use nuclear weapons in the event of aggression against it with the use of conventional weapons,’ Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Russia this morning.
His statement followed Putin‘s approval of an updated nuclear doctrine that allows his strategic forces to deploy nuclear weapons if Russian or Belarusian territory is threatened by a non-nuclear nation supported by a nuclear power.
Threats that could make Russia’s leadership consider a nuclear strike include an attack with conventional missiles, drones or other aircraft, according to the updated document.
A Ukrainian strike on Russian territory with US-supplied missiles meets these criteria, raising fears that Moscow may now consider a dramatic escalation in the conflict.
Asked whether the Russian leader was behaving irresponsibly, the No10 spokeswoman said: ‘It would be fair to say it’s the latest example of irresponsibility that we’ve seen from the depraved Russian government.
‘We remain steadfast in our support for Ukraine and the defence of an illegal invasion, and we’ve always said that the defence of the UK starts in Ukraine.’
The spokeswoman said: ‘Our focus remains on supporting Ukraine … we’re very clear that Vladimir Putin could end this war tomorrow.
‘He could remove his troops, roll back his tanks and end the onslaught and needless bloodshed in both Ukraine and Russia. That is entirely within his gift.
‘We would urge him to do so.’
Ukraine’s foreign ministry issued a defiant statement in spite of the Kremlin’s nuclear sabre-rattling, declaring that ‘Ukraine will never submit to the occupiers and the Russian military will be punished for violating international law’.
‘We need peace through strength, not appeasement,’ the ministry added, as Volodymyr Zelensky called on Kyiv’s allies to ‘force’ Moscow into a ‘just peace’ and vowed his troops would ‘never surrender’.
Zelensky has long pressed his Western allies to allow his country to strike military targets deeper inside Russia, saying the restriction had made it impossible for Kyiv to try to stop Russian attacks on its cities and electrical grids.
But Kyiv’s Western backers had resisted his pleas amid fears that doing so would cross a ‘red line’ set by Putin – until this past weekend when the Biden administration sensationally lifted the blanket ban.
Putin, who today signed the decree formalising Russia’s updated nuclear doctrine, first announced changes to the document in September.
At the time, the Russian President said he would consider Western nations ‘direct participants’ in the war in Ukraine if they were to provide Kyiv with the ability to strike targets inside Russia.
He also suggested he may provide Russian missiles to Western adversaries to strike Western targets abroad as a course of retaliation.
