Russian President Vladimir Putin attracted international attention once again on Friday when he warned that if even one missile enters Russian territory, “hundreds” of warheads will respond.
“I assure you that after the early warning system receives a signal of a missile attack, hundreds of our missiles are in the air,” he said from a summit in Kyrgyzstan, Russia’s RIA newspaper reported. “It’s impossible to stop them.”
“There will be nothing left of the enemy, because it is impossible to intercept a hundred missiles. This, of course, is a deterrent, a serious deterrent,” he added.
On June 1, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses participants of the all-Russian Bolshaya Peremena competition for school students via video link at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow.
(Photo by MIKHAIL METZEL/SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images)
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Putin made headlines after suggesting he could make changes to Russia’s nuclear deterrence doctrine by employing a first strike policy, which he called a “disarming strike” – a strategy he said was motivated by the current US deterrence policy.
Russia already has this strategy built into its nuclear doctrine.
Washington has a policy that allows it to use a nuclear weapon, not just in retaliation for a nuclear attack, but also in response to non-nuclear threats – and so does Moscow, the Russian expert and former US intelligence officer explained. DIA for Russian Doctrine and Strategy, Rebecca Koffler.
“What this was, from an intelligence perspective, is a ‘strategic message,'” he said, adding that Putin’s comments signaled that “Russia may use nuclear weapons in Ukraine if US/NATO continue to supply weapons to Ukraine, especially those that Ukraine can use to strike deep into Russia proper.”
Putin’s comments come days after three separate drone strikes hit bases hundreds of miles inside Russia’s borders, an attack Moscow blamed directly on Ukraine.
“Based on existing Russian doctrine, Russia can respond with nuclear strikes, because Engels Air Base is home to nuclear bombers, which are considered strategic assets, worthy of being defended with nuclear weapons,” Koffler explained.
A self-propelled artillery vehicle fires near Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine on Wednesday, November 9, 2022.
(AP Photo/LIBKOS)
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Kiev has not accepted responsibility for the attacks, but attacks outside Ukraine’s borders, where a brutal war has raged for more than nine months, put senior defense officials on alert this week.
“It’s a terrible war in Ukraine. It’s also a war that can become a full-fledged war that turns into a big war between NATO and Russia,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in an interview on Friday.
“There is no doubt that a full-fledged war is a possibility,” he added, noting that NATO is doing everything it can to prevent it.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday accused Putin of engaging in “deeply irresponsible nuclear saber rattling” and said the United States “stands ready to negotiate new arms control deals with partners operating in good faith.”
Koffler warned that the rhetoric of the top nuclear powers alone could escalate the war in Ukraine.
A Yars ICBM is launched as part of Russia’s nuclear exercises from a launch site in Plesetsk in northwestern Russia.
(Press Service of the Russian Defense Ministry via AP)
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“There is no doubt that Russia and the United States are climbing an escalatory ladder in Ukraine, which could end with Putin’s use of nuclear weapons,” he told Fox News Digital. “Neither side wants to end up in a direct conflict, but they are climbing this ladder unintentionally due to mutual misunderstanding of posture.”
“Both sides are betting that the other will blink first,” he added.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
