“We will take it as a new phase of the West's war against Russia”: Moscow's response to the launch of US missiles against its territory

Tensions between Russia and the West, regarding the war in Ukraine, escalated this Tuesday after Kyiv carried out attacks on Russian territory for the first time using long-range missiles supplied by the United States.

“We will take it as a new phase of the West’s war against Russia and we will react accordingly,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said during a press conference at the G20 in Rio de Janeiro.

The official assured that Moscow interprets this attack as a sign of the intention to seek an escalation. “This is, of course, a sign that (from the West) they want to escalate (the conflict),” he said.

Moscow had long been warning the West about such an attack.

In fact, last September, as Kyiv sought authorization to use these missiles against Russian territory, President Vladimir Putin announced that he was considering changing the rules and conditions under which Russia would use its nuclear arsenal.

Then, he indicated that Russia would consider an attack by a non-nuclear state that was backed by a nuclear-armed one as a “joint attack.”.

Since Ukraine is a non-nuclear state that receives military support from the United States and other nuclear-armed countries, his words were interpreted as a threat to use nuclear weapons in the war in Ukraine.

This Tuesday, Putin approved the announced changes to Russian nuclear doctrine.

For his part, Lavrov made it clear that Moscow assumes that the US was fully involved in this action.

“Without the Americans, the use of these high-tech missiles – as Putin has said many times – is impossible”said.

He indicated that Russia will proceed “from the understanding” that the missiles were operated by “American military experts.”

“I hope they read the (new nuclear) doctrine in its entirety,” he added.

Already on Monday, Moscow had already said that an attack with these American weapons would trigger an “appropriate and tangible response.”

What happened?

This Tuesday, Moscow reported that Ukraine had launched six American-made ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System) missiles against the Bryansk region.