Russia threatens nuclear response: What’s the UK’s next move?
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Russia's revised nuclear doctrine signals a dangerous escalation, threatening potential nuclear retaliation against Western-backed weaponry in Ukraine. How has Keir Starmer responded, and what does this mean for the UK?
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In brief:
- 1,000 days into Russia's invasion of Ukraine, tensions have escalated dramatically, with President Biden authorising Ukraine to use US-made long-range missiles to strike Russia's Kursk region.
- The Kremlin has announced it will rewrite its nuclear doctrine to potentially allow a nuclear response if Western-made weaponry is used in Russian territory.
- Simultaneously, the UK is trying to recalibrate relations with China while Russia and China simultaneously announce they will take their security relationship to "unprecedented levels".
What’s the story?
Today marks 1,000 days since Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine - and while people may be growing weary of hearing events unfold, the conflict is far from settling down.
It just ramped up.
President Biden’s authorisation for Ukraine to use US-made long-range missiles to strike Russia’s Kursk region for the first time since the conflict began has prompted a furious response from Putin.
“The Kremlin has decided to rewrite its nuclear doctrine to say that in the event of Western made weaponry being used in their territory, that could prompt a nuclear response,” Lewis Goodall explains on today’s episode of The News Agents.
Essentially, Russia is lowering the threshold for a nuclear attack, arguing that any attack by a non-nuclear power supported by a nuclear power would be considered a joint attack.
However, “most military analysts believe that this is just sabre rattling, that this is what Putin does,” Lewis notes.
It is “grim”, he adds, that this is all unfolding as the country marks 1,000 days since the war began.
Will the UK get involved?
Downing Street responded to Russia’s threat of nuclear attack by calling it “the latest example of irresponsibility that we have seen from the depraved Russian government”.
A “strong” statement, Lewis believes, but while the threat of nuclear war has clearly not made Keir Starmer back down in his support, it has left people wondering whether the UK could up the ante militarily.
Jon Sopel says the question on everyone's lips now is: “Does this mean Storm Shadow missiles from Britain are also going to be fired?”
The Prime Minister has not commented directly on the use of long-range missiles to attack Russia, refusing to comment on “operational details” when interviewed by Sky News, saying that doing so would undermine Ukraine.
But he has doubled down on his commitment to Ukraine.
“We must give Ukraine the support that is needed for as long as it’s needed.”
The News Agents Take
There is a slight “awkwardness”, Lewis says, that this situation is playing out as Keir Starmer met with China president Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Rio. It was the first meeting between the UK and China’s leaders in six years.
While Starmer was trying to “recalibrate” relations with China and “make them cosier”, China and Russia were releasing a joint statement saying they will take their security relationship to unprecedented levels.
“These days, Russia and China, economically speaking, and increasingly militarily, are more and more intertwined,” Lewis says.
It left the UK “as opposed to Russia as ever before, whilst trying to hug China a little bit more closely.”
Alongside these developments, early on Tuesday morning Ukraine officials announced that 12 people, including one child, were killed in an overnight Russian drone attack in a small town in the northeastern region of Sumy.
“It's just worth reminding people,” Lewis says, “that for all of the talk of war weariness, this is still happening every single day in Ukraine.”
Listen to the latest episode of The News Agents.
