Russia’s Putin signs updated doctrine that lowers threshold for using nuclear weapons [Video]

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday signed a revised nuclear doctrine declaring that a conventional attack on Russia by any country that is supported by a nuclear power will be considered a joint attack on his country.

Putin’s endorsement of the new nuclear deterrent policy comes on the 1,000th day after he sent troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Putin first announced changes in the nuclear doctrine in September, when he chaired a meeting discussing the proposed revisions, but the signing follows an apparent decision by the U.S. to let Ukraine strike targets inside Russia with American-supplied longer-range missiles, which was first learned in published reports on the weekend.

Russia’s Defence Ministry, as reported by Russian news agencies on Tuesday, said that Ukraine launched an attack on the Bryansk region overnight with six U.S.-made ATACMS long-range missiles. Debris from one missile fell on a military facility causing a fire, …