Putin has threatened Ukraine's western allies with a nuclear response because of the US decision to allow strikes with US weapons on Russian territory? So claim various posts on social networks. Is it true?
US President Joe Biden allowed Ukraine to use ATACMS long-range missile systems against targets on Russian territory. The missiles have a range of about 300 kilometers and the Ukrainian army can use them to defend against Russian and North Korean troops in the Kursk region. Although the Pentagon and the US National Security Council have not yet officially confirmed the decision, several videos of Vladimir Putin's remarks on the occasion are already circulating. They are said to be a direct response to Biden's decision.
Claim: "Extraordinary: Vladimir Putin has announced that he will use nuclear weapons if a missile or drone is launched into Russia or those weapons reach Russian territory," a user on X claimed in a post that has been viewed nearly five million times and shared over 10 thousand times. Added to it is a video of the Russian president from the Russian state TV channel RT, which is banned in the EU.
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shows that the video and Putin's speech from it were not made in response to Biden's decision in recent days. RT posted this video nearly two months ago. It shows an excerpt from a meeting of the Russian Standing Committee of the Security Council on Nuclear Deterrence on September 25, 2024.
At this meeting, it was decided to change the previous Russian nuclear doctrine and to allow the use of nuclear weapons. The list of military threats against which such weapons could be used was extended, Putin explained at the time: "I want to draw your attention to something else: the updated version of this document proposes aggression against Russia by a non-nuclear power, but with the support of a nuclear power , to be understood as a joint attack against the Russian Federation". The possibility of carrying out a pre-emptive nuclear attack was also thoroughly discussed at this meeting. The previous version of Moscow's nuclear doctrine assumed the use of nuclear weapons only in response to an attack on Russia.
Putin has not commented on the latest developments
This video is not the only one currently being shared on social media claiming to show Putin's reaction to Biden's decision to use long-range weapons against Russian territory. Another video garnering a lot of interaction claimed that Putin said that Russia was "now officially at war with NATO". However, this statement is from September 12, 2024. At the time, Putin was commenting on a potential decision by Ukraine's Western allies to allow long-range weapons to be used against Russia. Putin warned that this could mean "direct intervention of NATO countries, the United States and the European Union in the war in Ukraine".
Following the news of Kiev's authorization to use US long-range weapons against targets deep inside Russia, Vladimir Putin has not commented. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova only recalled the comments made by the Russian president on September 12 this year. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov issued a statement Monday calling Biden's decision "a new turn in the spiral of escalation." He also recalled Putin's statement from earlier: "Only military personnel from NATO countries can operate these missile systems. Ukrainian troops cannot do it. Therefore, the question is not whether the Ukrainian regime is allowed to attack Russia with these weapons. It is about whether NATO countries are directly involved in a military conflict or not."