One Missile Into Russia, Hundreds Of Warheads In Return – Putin Warns
Russian President Vladimir Putin once again drew international attention when he warned that if even one missile enters Russian territory, “hundreds” of warheads will respond.
* Putin’s comments come just days after three separate drone strikes hit bases hundreds of miles within Russia’s borders — an attack that Moscow blamed squarely on Ukraine.
* “It is a terrible war in Ukraine. It is also a war that can become a full-fledged war that spreads into a major war between NATO and Russia,” – NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said noting that NATO is doing everything possible to prevent this.
“I assure you, after the early warning system receives a signal of a missile attack, hundreds of our missiles are in the air,” Putin said from a summit in Kyrgyzstan, Russian news outlet RIA reported. “It is 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.
Putin made headlines after he appeared to suggest that he may make changes to Russia’s nuclear deterrence doctrine by employing a first-strike policy, which he referred to as a “disarming strike” — a strategy he said is motivated by the current U.S. deterrence policy.
Russia already has this strategy embedded in its nuclear doctrine.
Washington does have a policy that allows it to use a nuclear weapon, not only in retaliation to a nuclear attack but also in response to non-nuclear threats — and so does Moscow, explained Rebekah Koffler, a Russia expert and former Defense Intelligence Agency intelligence officer for Russian Doctrine & Strategy.
“What this was, from the intelligence standpoint, is ‘strategic messaging,'” she said, adding that Putin’s comments signaled that “Russia may use nuclear weapons in Ukraine if the US/NATO continue to provide weapons to Ukraine — especially those that Ukraine can use to strike deep into Russia proper.”
Putin’s comments come just days after three separate drone strikes hit bases hundreds of miles within Russia’s borders — an attack that Moscow blamed squarely on Ukraine.
“Based on the existing Russian doctrine, Russia can respond with nuclear strikes, because Engels airbase is the home to nuclear-capable bombers that are considered strategic assets, worthy of defending with nukes,” Koffler explained.
Kyiv has not accepted responsibility for the strikes, but the attacks outside of Ukraine’s borders, where a brutal war has raged for more than nine months, put top defense officials on the alert this week.
“It is a terrible war in Ukraine. It is also a war that can become a full-fledged war that spreads into a major war between NATO and Russia,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Friday in an interview.
“There is no doubt that a full-fledged war is a possibility,” he added, noting that NATO was doing everything possible to prevent this. Continue reading
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