Kremlin Says Russia Prepared to Use Nukes in Cases of ‘Existential Threat’

A rocket launches from missile system as part of a ground-based intercontinental ballistic missile test launched from the Plesetsk facility in northwestern Russia on Dec. 9, 2020. Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that Moscow is not ruling out a nuclear strike under circumstances outlined in its military doctrine, including if Russia faces an “existential threat.”

Peskov was responding to a question by CNN’s Christiane Amanpour during an interview in which he was asked to confirm that Russian President Vladimir Putin would “never use a nuclear weapon.”

The spokesperson declined to rule out a nuclear strike, while making reference to Russian military doctrine that allows the use of nuclear weapons under certain circumstances, even in conventional arms conflicts.

“We have a concept of domestic security, and it’s public. You can read all the reasons for nuclear arms to be used,” Peskov said.

“So if it is an existential threat for our country, then it can be used in accordance with our concept.”

Peskov was presumably referring to a presidential directive on nuclear deterrence, which was published in June 2020 and specifies a number of situations under which Russia could use nuclear weapons.

Paragraph 19 of the decree stipulates the following conditions as possibilities for Russia to resort to a nuclear strike, according to a translation provided by RealClearDefense:

a) arrival of reliable data on a launch of ballistic missiles attacking the territory of the Russian Federation and/or its allies;

b) use of nuclear weapons or other types of weapons of mass destruction by an adversary against the Russian Federation and/or its allies;

c) attack by an adversary against critical governmental or military sites of the Russian Federation, disruption of which would undermine nuclear forces response actions;

d) aggression against the Russian Federation with the use of conventional weapons when the very existence of the state is in jeopardy.

Paragraph 4 of the decree fits into what some experts have described as a Russian policy of “escalating to deescalate.” It states that the potential use of nuclear weapons by Russia is to “guarantee the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the state and to deter a potential adversary from aggression against the Russian Federation and (or) its allies in the event of the emergence of an armed conflict by preventing the escalation of military activities and ending them on conditions acceptable to the Russian Federation and (or) its allies.”

The issue of a potential nuclear strike by Russia surged to the forefront when Putin put his country’s nuclear forces on high alert several days after ordering his troops to move against Ukraine.

Putin said the nuclear escalation was driven by hostile comments by leading members of NATO and by punishing Western sanctions, which he said were like a declaration of war.

The Russian president also issued an ominous warning that any attempts by other countries to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine would have catastrophic consequences for Europe and the world, a comment many analysts and officials interpreted as a threat to take the conflict nuclear.

The issue also grabbed headlines when Russian troops seized the biggest nuclear power plant in Europe after an attack that set an adjacent administrative building on fire, sparking fears of a nuclear disaster that could eclipse the one that took place in Chernobyl.

Earlier in March, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he “doesn’t want to believe” there would be a nuclear war over Ukraine, a statement some analysts interpreted as a veiled threat.

At the same time, Lavrov accused the West of being obsessed with the theme of nuclear escalation, claiming this, and not Russia’s actions, was a “cause for concern.”

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on March 14 that “the prospect of nuclear conflict, once unthinkable, is now back within the realm of possibility.”