US-Ukraine carry out first ATACMS strike in Russia

Ukrainian forces carried out their first strike on a border region in Russia using Western-supplied missiles as President Vladimir Putin approved an updated nuclear doctrine expanding the conditions for using atomic weapons, writes Bloomberg.

Ukraine deployed ATACMS missiles to strike a military facility in the western Bryansk region, Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement on Telegram. It was the first known attack following the decision by President Joe Biden’s administration to approve Kyiv’s limited use of the weapons to hit targets inside Russia, two months before Donald Trump takes over promising to quickly end the war.

Ukraine’s General Staff earlier confirmed a strike on a warehouse in the city of Karachev, detonating ammunition stored at the site some 115 kilometers (71 miles) from the border with Ukraine. Neither the General Staff nor Ukraine’s Defense Ministry would comment on what weapons were used, saying the information is classified. Russia’s Defense Ministry said that its forces shot down five missiles and damaged one, and no casualties were reported.

Meanwhile, Putin signed a decree allowing Russia to fire nuclear weapons in response to a conventional attack on its soil that threatens its sovereignty, including by drones. Russia will view aggression against itself or its allies by a non-nuclear state backed by a nuclear power as a joint attack, the document posted online said. That follows a pledge Putin made in September to revise the doctrine.

The moves by both Ukraine and Russia appeared to leave investors rattled and rushing to buy the safest assets. Government bonds and traditional haven currencies including the Japanese yen and Swiss franc surged.

The yield on US Treasuries fell at least six to seven basis points across the curve. The yen climbed 0.8% against the dollar, while the franc rose to strongest level against the euro since August.

Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, on Tuesday confirmed that Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022, would consider an attack by Kyiv using Western missiles as a strike by a non-nuclear state supported by a nuclear power.

“The Russian Federation retains the right to use nuclear weapons in the case of aggression using conventional weapons against it” that poses a critical threat to sovereignty or territorial integrity, Peskov said, according to the state-run Tass news service.

The Russian leader has warned the US and its European allies against allowing Ukraine to strike deep inside Russia using Western long-range high-precision weapons, saying this would bring them into direct conflict with his country.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters on Tuesday from the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Rio de Janeiro that Kyiv’s ATACMS missiles strike signals that the West wants escalation. “As Putin has repeatedly said, it’s impossible to use these high-tech missiles without the Americans.”

Photo: RT

Lawmakers in both parties are generally offering support for President Biden’s decision to authorize a major shift in U.S. policy to allow Ukraine to use long-range U.S. missiles to attack sites in Russia, ‘The Hill’ notes.

The escalatory move came less than two weeks after President-elect Trump defeated Vice President Harris in the presidential election. The incoming president’s most vocal supporters on Capitol Hill have been much less enthusiastic to support Ukraine, and Donald Trump Jr. suggested Biden’s decision could trigger a third world war.

Republicans say the move came too late….

The policy change spurred Moscow to lower the threshold for nuclear weapons use, renewing fears of a serious escalation in the war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin updated his nuclear doctrine Tuesday to say an attack on Russia with conventional weapons from a nonnuclear state, but with the support of a nuclear-armed state, would be considered a joint attack.

That could trigger a nuclear response, the Kremlin said, as Putin appears to be issuing a major threat to the U.S. and Western allies.

But many of Trump’s biggest supporters on Capitol Hill have long called for an end to U.S. assistance to Ukraine and the war, and they are upset about the shift on ATACMS.

Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.), Trump’s pick for national security adviser, said Monday on Fox News that it was “another step up the escalation ladder.”

Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.), who does not support more security funding for Ukraine, said the ATACMS move was a “continual escalation in the wrong direction.”

“Biden is going to do what Biden’s done the last four years, which is destroy the country, destroy our position on the world stage, try and weaken us in every way when it comes to negotiations, to make it more difficult for President Trump to go ahead and focus on the ‘America First’ agenda,” he said.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said he supported lifting the ATACMS restrictions because it could “lead to a diplomatic breakthrough,” but he also accused Biden of being “shallow” and trying to stymie Trump.

“He’s trying to put Trump in a box,” Graham said, adding it was “odd that he decided to do this right after the election… I just think that this was something he should have done to help Ukraine, and he’s playing politics with it. And I think that’s a crappy thing to do.”

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) said she was worried “about this last-minute shift in policy before Trump comes in to defuse the situation.”

“I don’t understand the abrupt change in foreign policy on this matter. It’s concerning to me,” she said.

Russia’s special military operation is taking longer because it was launched against the Kiev regime but now continues as a conflict with NATO’s participation, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, TASS informs.

"When it all started, it started against the Kiev regime. And now it’s continuing as a war between Russia and NATO. That’s why it took a little bit longer. And it will take a little bit longer," he told India’s ANI news agency.

"I don’t think it’s possible to answer the question, when can it end, but the only thing I can tell you, it will come to an end as soon as we reach our goals," the Kremlin official added.

Peskov reiterated that the Kiev regime rejects the possibility of negotiations with Russia. "It was a special presidential decree by Zelensky forbidding any president of Ukraine any negotiations with the Russians," he explained. "That’s why we continue our military operation because a possibility of peaceful negotiations is now being denied both by Kiev and their rulers in Washington," Putin’s spokesman stressed.

read more in our Telegram-channel https://t.me/The_International_Affairs