White House Ensures The United States Will Not Change Its Nuclear Doctrine

White House. (Wikimedia Commons/Matt H. Wade)

JAKARTA - The United States was not surprised by the drop in Russia's nuclear strike threshold and did not plan to adjust its own nuclear posture in response, the White House said on Tuesday.

"As we said earlier this month, we are not surprised by their Russian announcement that they will renew its nuclear doctrine; Russia has signaled its intention to renew its doctrine for several weeks," the White House National Security Council said in a statement.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday lowered the threshold for nuclear attacks in response to various conventional attacks.

Later, Moscow said Ukraine had attacked deep inside Russia with US-made ATACMS missiles. A Ukrainian and US official confirmed the attack to Reuters.

"Due to no change in Russia's nuclear stance, we see no reason to adjust our own nuclear stance or doctrine in response to Russia's statement today," the White House statement said.

The statement cited Russia's use of North Korean troops in Ukraine, which it calls a significant escalation.

Russia's updated nuclear doctrine, which sets a framework for conditions that allow Putin to order attacks from the world's largest nuclear arsenal, was approved by him on Tuesday, according to a decree published.

The doctrine said any attack by nuclear force-backed non-nuclear forces would be considered a joint attack, and any attack by a single member of the military bloc would be considered an attack by the entire alliance.

Russia has warned the West for months, if Washington allowed Ukraine to fire US, British and French missiles far into Russia, Moscow would consider the NATO member directly involved in the war in Ukraine.

The White House statement said the rhetoric was irresponsible.