A decision by the West to allow Ukraine to launch long-range strikes deep into Russia with foreign-made weapons could force Moscow to resort to the nuclear option, a Russian lawmaker has said.
In an interview with RIA Novosti on Saturday, Andrey Kartapolov, who heads the parliamentary defense committee, commented on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent proposal to update the country’s nuclear doctrine.
On Wednesday, the Russian leader suggested that the new nuclear strategy should treat “aggression against Russia by any non-nuclear state, but with the participation or support of a nuclear state” as a “joint attack” that would cross the nuclear threshold. The implication of the change is that it would apply to a possible Ukrainian attack on Russian soil with weapons supplied by the US, Britain, or France.
According to Kartapolov, if the West gives the green light for the use of long-range assets against internationally recognized Russian territory, all options could be on the table when it comes to a possible response. “This [the approval] may become the cause, but the decision will be made by the Supreme Commander,” he said.
Still, there could be other factors at play when the decision on whether to use nuclear weapons is made, and for this reason it is impossible to say whether they would actually be used, Kartapolov said. He also suggested that this ambiguity surrounding Putin’s announcement caused some panic in the West.
“Our former Western partners became nervous, because this is a serious argument,” the MP said.
Ukraine has long implored the West to lift restrictions on the use of foreign-supplied long-range weapons against Russia, but so far to little avail. In May, the US allowed Kiev to use American-made weapons to hit targets in Russia but only within a very limited range, a decision made in response to Moscow’s advance in Ukraine’s Kharkov Region.
Putin has warned that lifting the restrictions on strikes deep into Russia would directly involve the US and NATO in open war against Moscow, noting that Kiev relies the American military for targeting coordinates for precision weapons.
Meanwhile, a New York Times report on Thursday said that US spy agencies had warned the administration that lifting the restrictions could trigger a direct backlash from Moscow, including “sabotage targeting facilities in Europe” and “potentially lethal attacks on US and European military bases.”
Despite the fears of escalation, Politico reported that the issue “remains under consideration” at the White House.