‘We will react!’ Putin’s allies issue chilling ‘WW3’ warning after Ukraine launches US long-range missiles

Russia has warned that it will retaliate with full-scale nuclear war after Ukraine fired long-range US missiles at its territory for the first time.

Vladimir Putin’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said that the attack showed that western countries wanted to “escalate” the conflict and that Russia will now “react accordingly”.

The Deputy Chair of Russia’s security council later posted on social media to state that this meant “World War III”.

“We will be taking this as a qualitatively new phase of the Western war against Russia. And we will react accordingly,” Lavrov told a press conference at the G20 summit in Brazil.

On Tuesday, Kyiv launched six Army Tactical Missile System (Atacms) towards the Bryansk region bordering Ukraine to the north.

Russia’s defence ministry said that five missiles had been shot down and one had caused damage after its fragments caused a fire at a military facility.

Simultaneously, Putin threatened a “nuclear response” to any “joint attack” on Russia by Ukraine supported by a Western ally.

In a dire warning issued on Tuesday, Moscow said it “reserved the right” to use nuclear weapons in the event of “aggression” against Russia or Belarus with conventional weapons if it creates a “critical threat to their sovereignty”.

The Russian president also approved changes to the nation’s nuclear doctrine, setting out new conditions under which its arsenal could be used.

The update was proposed back in September, and was approved on the 1,000th day of the conflict.

“This is a very important text,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, adding “it should become a subject to a very deep analysis”.

An attack from a non-nuclear state, if backed by a nuclear power, will now be treated as a joint assault on Russia.

The White House, the UK Government and the European Union condemned the move as “irresponsible”.

US state department spokesperson Matthew Miller said: “Since the beginning of its war of aggression against Ukraine, [Russia] has sought to coerce and intimidate both Ukraine and other countries around the world through irresponsible nuclear rhetoric and behaviour.”

More to follow…