ISW: Putin suggests that Ukrainian strikes do not cross the Russian nuclear “red line”

Lina Portman4 weeks ago

0 2 minutes read

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory with Western-supplied weapons do not cross a “red line” that would trigger a Russian nuclear escalation, according to a report from the Institute for the Study of war (ISW).

The US-based Institute for the Study of War reported on June 6 that Russian President Vladimir Putin's recent statement suggests that Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory with Western-supplied weapons do not cross a so-called Russian “red line” that would lead to Russian nuclear escalation.

According to the ISW, Putin said that “Russian nuclear doctrine calls for Russia to use nuclear weapons only in 'exceptional cases' of threats to Russia's sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Putin said he did not think such an “exceptional” case had arisen, so “there is no need for Russia to use nuclear weapons.”

“Our nuclear doctrine calls for the use of nuclear weapons in exceptional cases – either in response to aggression committed against Russia and its allies… or in response to the use of other weapons of mass destruction against Russia. »

“But in this case we don’t see the need for it, it doesn’t exist so far,” he said.

This statement comes after Ukrainian forces have repeatedly struck military targets in Russia's Belgorod oblast, near the Ukrainian border, using HIMARS missile systems and GMLRS munitions supplied by the Russian Federation on several occasions since early June 2024. UNITED STATES.

Putin and other Kremlin officials had earlier threatened a nuclear escalation if Western countries allowed Ukraine to carry out strikes in Russia with Western-supplied weapons.

However, according to the ISW, “Western and Ukrainian policies and actions crossed Russia's so-called 'red lines' repeatedly throughout the war without eliciting a significant response from Russia, indicating that good many of Russia's “red lines” are most likely information operations intended to push the West into self-deterrence.

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