{"id":152303,"date":"2025-06-02T14:28:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T14:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/152303\/"},"modified":"2025-06-02T14:28:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T14:28:14","slug":"ukraines-pearl-harbour-strike-on-putin-may-have-breached-nuclear-doctrine-news-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/152303\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine’s ‘Pearl Harbour’ strike on Putin ‘may have breached nuclear doctrine’ | News World"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"Picture
\n\t\tPutin has gone \u2018into hiding\u2019 since the attack (Picture: Reuters \/ East2west)<\/p>\n

Putin could use \u2018game-changing\u2019 nuclear weapons in a show of strength hours after Ukraine\u2019s drone strikes<\/a>, an expert has warned.<\/p>\n

The Russian leader could use the destruction of his nuclear-capable war planes in the surprise drone attack to justify use of nuclear weapons, Professor Stephen Hall told Metro<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Ukraine blew up scores of Russian nuclear bombers<\/a> in a mass drone attack on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Codenamed \u2018Operation Spiderweb\u2019, at least 40 war planes were hit by drones which were smuggled into Russia<\/a> and then launched remotely off the back of trucks.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"METRO
\n\t\tWhere the airfields Operation Spiderweb struck on Sunday<\/p>\n

It represented a huge security failure for the Kremlin, after it emerged the operations \u2018office\u2019 was right next to a branch of Russia\u2019s secret service.<\/p>\n

The Bath University lecturer told Metro<\/strong>: \u2018The response will be a large attack. Putin cannot be seen to look weak.<\/p>\n

\u2018They will target whatever they can and claim they are military targets. We can expect to see missiles and drones.\u2019<\/p>\n

However, the Russian leader is currently \u2018in hiding\u2019 and many vocal members of the Kremlin are silent as Russia weighs up its full response to the crisis.<\/p>\n

One thing they will be considering is how to respond to the attacks on their nuclear bombers.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tbrowser that
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsupports HTML5
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tvideo<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t<\/video><\/p>\n

According to Russia\u2019s new nuclear doctrine, published in 2024, any attacks on military infrastructure which \u2018disrupt response actions by nuclear forces\u2019 could lead to nuke strikes in return.<\/p>\n

Dr Hall added: \u2018Technically, this fits inside what could lead Russia to engage in nuclear war.<\/p>\n

\u2018The nuclear doctrine is incredibly vague, and I suspect that is not a path the Kremlin will go down. Primarily because that will be significant overkill.<\/p>\n

\u2018If they did use nuclear weapons, that would be game-changing.\u2019<\/p>\n

Prof. Hall also argued that any use of nuclear weapons would damage Russia\u2019s relationship with China, India and President Trump in the US.<\/p>\n

Russia has already begun its retaliation, launching more strikes on Ukraine overnight.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"Russian
\n\t\tRussian Belaya Air Base in Irkutsk region, Siberia, was ablaze today after a suspected drone strike linked to Ukraine (Picture: Svodka38\/e2w)<\/p>\n

Sunday also saw Russia hit its adversary with the largest drone attack since the full-scale invasion in February 2022.<\/p>\n

Another possible Russian Response could be deploying depleted uranium, a toxic chemical and radiation health hazard when inside the body.<\/p>\n

The metal is put on the tips of shells and can better penetrate targets and was previously used in conflicts in Kosovo and the Iraq War.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tWhat is Russia’s nuclear doctrine?\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s nuclear doctrine sets out under what condition the Kremlin would launch nuclear strikes on its enemies.<\/p>\n

In November 2024, Russia adopted new red lines for when they would press the big red button.<\/p>\n

The new policy states that Russia could launch nuclear weapons in response to an attack on its territory by a non-nuclear-armed state backed by a nuclear-armed one.<\/p>\n

Under the vaguely worded guidelines, a large attack on Russia with conventional missiles, drones or aircraft could trigger\u00a0 nuclear response.<\/p>\n

Assaults on Belarus or any critical threat to Russia\u2019s sovereignty could also meet the threshold.<\/p>\n

Dr Hall doubts the Kremlin would choose to turn to this right now.<\/p>\n

He explained: \u2018It would lead to a significant escalation of the war and would finally push a lot of European countries to go all in, in support of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Germany\u2019s defence chief said Russia is rapidly building up its reserve of battle tanks, to as many as 1,500 each year.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"BELOZERSK,
\n\t\tRussia launched the largest drone attack on Ukraine since the beginning of the full scale invasion (Picture: State Emergency Service of Ukraine\/Anadolu via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

General Carsten Breuer told the BBC<\/a> these could be used against NATO members.<\/p>\n

But Dr Hall said at the moment, the Russian army does not have the capacity to fight two wars at once.<\/p>\n

He told Metro: \u2018Putin believes he is winning, whether he has the right information is another matter.\u2019<\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s strikes on Russian airfields came a day before Russia and Ukraine were due to sit down for more peace talks.<\/p>\n

Dr Hall believes Ukraine\u2019s attack on Russia won\u2019t change the future of the negotiations because Putin wants the war to continue regardless.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"Specialists
\n\t\tExplosions saw two bridges collapse in Russia overnight (Picture: REUTERS)<\/p>\n

The Russia expert said: \u2018The President doesn\u2019t want peace. That\u2019s quite clear.<\/p>\n

\u2018Both sides have very different opinions about what they want to achieve in terms of peace. I suspect we are not going to see peace any time soon.\u2019<\/p>\n

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk<\/a>.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

For more stories like this, <\/strong>check our news page<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Arrow
\nMORE: Britain to spend \u00a31,500,000,000 on new weapons factories in \u2018message\u2019 to Putin<\/a><\/p>\n

Arrow
\nMORE: Seven dead in train crash after \u2018explosions\u2019 destroy bridges on Ukraine border<\/a><\/p>\n

Arrow
\nMORE: Schoolgirl, 13, killed after javelin went through her eye in PE lesson pictured<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tNews Updates<\/p>\n

Stay on top of the headlines with daily email updates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Putin has gone \u2018into hiding\u2019 since the attack (Picture: Reuters \/ East2west) Putin could use \u2018game-changing\u2019 nuclear weapons…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152304,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[2000,299,12,332,7661,657,333,658,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-152303","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-russia","12":"tag-russia-ukraine-war","13":"tag-ukraine","14":"tag-vladimir-putin","15":"tag-volodymyr-zelensky","16":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114614246268636624","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}