Russia 1,000 days of war - Ukraine uses US weapons

After 1,000 days of the Russian war of aggression, Ukraine has fired on Russian territory with long-range US weapons for the first time.

The Ministry of Defense in Moscow announced that six US-made ATACMS missiles had been fired at the Bryansk border region. The General Staff in Kiev confirmed a night-time attack on a Russian ammunition depot near the city of Karachev.

For the people of Ukraine, the sad milestone of 1,000 days meant further suffering during the war. In the small town of Hluchiv in the north-east of the country, a Russian combat drone hit a multi-storey residential building, killing at least twelve people. According to the authorities, further victims were suspected under the rubble. President Volodymyr Zelenskyi presented a plan in parliament in Kiev on how his country can better withstand Russian pressure.

Russian head of state Vladimir Putin implemented a new nuclear doctrine 1,000 days after his order to attack. In the deep conflict with the West, he listed several new threat scenarios in which Russia could resort to nuclear weapons. They are intended to deter Western countries from supporting Ukraine.

ATACMS strike against Russian ammunition depot

According to media reports, the USA only recently allowed Ukraine to use the ATACMS missiles with a range of up to 300 kilometers against targets in Russia. This is seen as a response to the suspected deployment of North Korean soldiers on Moscow's side. Russia, for its part, sees the US weapons as an escalation and an involvement of the USA and other Western states in the war.

According to the Moscow Ministry of Defense, five of the six missiles were intercepted by the Russian air defence system. Debris from the damaged sixth missile fell on a military site in the Bryansk region. "There are no casualties or destruction," it said.

In contrast, the General Staff in Kiev announced that twelve secondary explosions had been observed in the depot. This refers to the detonation of ammunition stored there after an impact.

Scholz and Pistorius remain opposed to the Taurus

With the release of the ATACMS by the USA, the discussion flared up again as to whether Germany should not supply the Taurus cruise missile with a range of up to 500 kilometers. However, Chancellor Olaf Scholz rejects this, and Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (both SPD) backed the Chancellor on this issue. "The position of the German government as a whole has not changed," he said in Brussels. It was legitimate that the USA had changed its line on the use of long-range weapons. "With Taurus, we are talking about a system that is still very different from all the others that are being used in Ukraine."

New Russian nuclear doctrine against Ukraine and NATO

What is new about the Russian nuclear doctrine is that Moscow considers aggression by a non-nuclear state that is supported by nuclear powers to be a joint attack on Russia. This is directed against the fact that Ukraine is supported militarily by the nuclear powers USA, Great Britain and France. Nuclear deterrence therefore also applies in the event that potentially hostile military alliances form, expand or move closer to Russia with their infrastructure. This is directed against Ukraine's efforts to become a member of NATO.

The new doctrine replaces the 2020 version and was published on the Kremlin's website. Putin has repeatedly threatened to use nuclear weapons during the two and a half years of war. The tightening of the nuclear doctrine that has been announced for months can also be understood as a threatening gesture.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock was unimpressed by the change in nuclear weapons doctrine. Putin is playing with fear, as has become clear time and again since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, said the Green politician in Warsaw. "We will not be intimidated, regardless of what is being trumpeted again and again."

Selensky: Ukraine relies on its own armaments

In Kiev, President Zelensky presented a plan to increase the country's resilience. "Even without nuclear weapons, we can find conventional instruments to contain (Russia)," the head of state told MPs and the assembled national leadership. To this end, investments would be made in the country's own arms industry.

Selensky once again rejected the idea of ceding territory to Russia. "We are not renouncing Ukraine's rights to its territory," he said. At the same time, however, he left room for the possibility that Ukrainian territories might temporarily not be under Kiev's control.

Tens of thousands of soldiers have died on both sides in the 1,000-day war, which began on February 24, 2022. Exact figures are not known. There is no end in sight. The Ukrainian army is under pressure. Western supporters are divided on their strategy, even though EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote on X: "Europe stands by Ukraine. Every day of the war." It is unclear how future US President Donald Trump will deal with the conflict.

SDA