Vladimir Putin has approved a decree updating Russia's nuclear doctrine, effectively expanding the possibilities for using nuclear weapons .

The new doctrine provides that Russia will be able to use them as a " last resort to protect the country's sovereignty " if it is threatened by a nuclear attack or with conventional weapons. The decision on their use always rests with the president.

If the previous doctrine envisaged the use of nuclear weapons in the case "when the very existence of the State is threatened", now the concept is broadened, foreseeing a nuclear response "to the use of nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction against Russia and its allies as well as in the case of aggression against the Russian Federation and Belarus with the use of conventional weapons that entails a critical threat to sovereignty and territorial integrity" .

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, answering a question from journalists, said that with the new doctrine Russia could also give a nuclear response to non-nuclear attacks by Ukraine using missiles supplied by Western countries . "Attacks from non-nuclear countries but with the support of nuclear countries are also threats to national sovereignty. So a nuclear retaliation is possible , it has been discussed."

The decision comes, certainly not by chance, after Biden gave Kiev the green light to use long-range missiles to strike Russian territory . The Kremlin accused the US president of "adding fuel to the fire" and promised "appropriate responses." The first response came today.

(Unioneonline/L)