No immediate nuclear threat from Russia despite new doctrine, Pentagon says

“It's something that they've been signaling that they intend to update over the last several weeks. It's the same irresponsible rhetoric that we've seen before and that we've seen frankly for the past two years,” she said.

“It’s something that we're going to continue to monitor, but we don't have any indications that Russia is preparing to use a nuclear weapon within Ukraine. And we don't see any changes that need to be made to our own nuclear posture as well.”

On Nov. 19, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin signed a decree approving a new nuclear doctrine.

It states that a nuclear strike by Russia could be launched in response to “aggression by a non-nuclear state supported by a nuclear state” or in the event of a massive air attack by non-nuclear means, including drones and ballistic missiles.

On the same day, Ukrainian forces had reportedly carried out their first U.S-made ATACMS ballistic missile strike on a military facility on Russian territory after being authorized by President Joe Biden.

This follows an earlier media reports on Nov. 17 that the U.S. Britain, and France had allowed Ukraine to carry out strikes deep into Russian territory with Western-made missiles.