Ukraine launched an attack on a Russian munitions depot overnight using an ATACMS tactical ballistic missile. According to reports in Forbes Ukraine and RBC Ukraine, citing unnamed sources, the attack on the Karachev logistics center in Bryansk Oblast marks the first use of ATACMS on Russian territory and took place only a day after Biden finally permitted US weapons to be used on strikes inside Russia (see Lame-Duck Biden Announces Major Ukraine Policy Shift Just Weeks Before Trump Takes Over). Karachev is over 80 miles inside Russia and was previously hit by Ukrainian drones.
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Russian sources claim six ATACMS were fired at Karachev; five of those were supposedly shot down, and the fires at the depot were caused by the wreckage of the sixth that was damaged. Video from the site paints a different picture.
Putin used the occasion of Biden’s announcement to rejigger Russian nuclear doctrine.
President Vladimir Putin has updated Russia’s nuclear doctrine, two days after his US counterpart Joe Biden granted Ukraine permission to strike targets deep inside Russia with American-made weapons.
Under the updated doctrine, Moscow will consider aggression from any non-nuclear state – but with the participation of a nuclear country – a joint attack on Russia.
The change comes as Russia claims Ukraine fired the US-made ATACMS missiles into the Russian region of Bryansk. The attack, if confirmed, would mark the first such use by Ukraine since Biden gave the green light.
The Russian government had previously signaled that the US approval would be a dangerous escalation of the war in Ukraine, now 1,000 days old.
This announcement seems nearly identical to the change in nuclear doctrine announced on September 25.
In a strong, new warning to the West, President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that any nation’s conventional attack on Russia that is supported by a nuclear power will be considered a joint attack on his country.
The threat, outlined in a revision of Moscow’s nuclear doctrine, was clearly aimed at discouraging the West from allowing Ukraine to strike Russia with longer-range weapons and appears to significantly lower the threshold for the possible use of Russia’s nuclear arsenal.
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I’m sure that will cause a case of the squirts in some corners of the America First movement because that is what they do. They’ve done it every previous time Putin has made some veiled nuclear threat; there is no reason this time should be different.
Had this sort of attack been allowed since the early days of the war, there is a good chance the conflict would have concluded by now. The insanity of allowing Russia to use weapons made from US components to strike deep inside Ukraine while forbidding Ukraine to use American-made weapons to strike military targets supporting Russia’s invasion did nothing to prevent escalation and simply ran up the body count on both sides. Even as late as it has started, it increases the chances of President Trump bringing this war to a close in a way that does not resemble the Afghanistan fiasco and further damage US credibility.