Ever since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the U.S. has spent hundreds of billions of dollars defending the eastern European nation. Increasingly, the war isn’t just a matter of defending Ukraine’s borders, however. Instead, the Ukrainian army has begun to launch ever more damaging assaults on Russian territory—and they’re doing it with U.S. weapons and money. In May of 2023, the Kremlin was allegedly attacked with a drone and, ever since then, Ukraine has increasingly targeted Russian airfields, refineries, towns, and cities. Just last month, Ukraine attacked Moscow in an aerial mission involving 11 drones.
Some critics have warned that American support for Ukraine means the U.S. is effectively waging a proxy war with Russia and, in doing so, threatening to drag us into WWIII. There’s been much intellectual debate over whether that’s a frighteningly cogent assessment or just melodramatic hyperbole, but some recent decisions (and statements) made by Russian President Vladimir Putin might lead onlookers to believe that it’s more the former than the latter.
Case in point: On Wednesday, Putin met with top officials at the Kremlin to announce proposed amendments to the Russian military doctrine, the New York Times reports. Said doctrine is the guiding document for how and when Russia can use nuclear weapons. Putin’s proposed changes would make it so that nations that support efforts to attack Russia—not just the nation doing the attacking—could be construed as viable targets for military engagement. “It is proposed that aggression against Russia by any non-nuclear state, but with the participation or support of a nuclear state be considered as their joint attack on the Russian Federation,” Putin offered, during the meeting.
In essence, what the proposed shift would do is allow Russia to treat the U.S.—which is a nuclear power that is supporting the military efforts of a non-nuclear state (Ukraine)—as if it has directly attacked the country. Putin’s remarks come as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky continues to lobby the U.S. to allow Ukraine to use U.S./western-made long-range ballistic missiles to strike targets inside of Russia. Such weapons systems would be able to shoot cluster munitions at a range of up to 190 miles and could cause significantly more damage than the drones that have previously been used.
The Times notes that Putin’s remarks signal that any “Western support for a conventional attack of Russia by Ukraine should be considered a joint attack and could, under certain circumstances, merit a nuclear response.” Given this context, the message from Putin to the U.S. with his public policy proposal seems to be pretty simple: Don’t try it.
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