The West appears to be working towards escalating the Ukraine conflict, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said following reports that US-made ATACMS missiles were used in an attack on Russia’s Bryansk Region.
Previously, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that the Ukrainian military had launched six long-range ATACMS missiles into the border region, noting that five of them had been intercepted by Russian air-defense systems, while another was damaged and hit the ground near a military base.
The attack comes after US President Joe Biden reportedly authorized the use of American-supplied weapons for strikes deep inside Russia last week.
Speaking to journalists on Tuesday, Lavrov admitted that he had no way to confirm whether the media reports regarding Biden’s permission granted to Kiev were true. However, he suggested that ATACMS strikes on Bryansk Region were a “clear sign that they want escalation.”
It is impossible to use the technologically complex ATACMS launchers without the help of the US, Lavrov noted, recalling Russian President Vladimir Putin’s prior warning that Moscow would be forced to change its position if Ukraine received permission to use long-range Western weapons against Russian territory.
Moscow perceives the launch of long-range missiles controlled by the US as a qualitatively new phase of the war on the part of the West, Lavrov stressed.
He also stated that while Russia remains committed to preventing a nuclear war, the West should closely examine Moscow’s amended nuclear doctrine, which was signed into force by Putin on Tuesday.
“I hope that they [in the West] will read this doctrine. And not the way they read the UN Charter, seeing only what they need, but the doctrine in its entirety and interconnectedness,” Lavrov said.
Russia’s updated nuclear doctrine states that Moscow has the option of deploying its weapons of mass destruction if it comes under attack from a non-nuclear state that is being backed by a nuclear one. The doctrine can also be triggered if either Russia or its allies, namely Belarus, are attacked by conventional weapons in a way that threatens their sovereignty or territorial integrity.