Putin to speak on nuclear deterrence as Ukraine tensions rise

By Dmitry Antonov and Guy Faulconbridge

MOSCOW (Reuters) -President Vladimir Putin will chair a meeting of Russia's Security Council on nuclear deterrence on Wednesday as Moscow weighs a response to Ukraine's requests that the U.S. allow it to strike deep into Russia with long-range Western missiles.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the meeting of the Security Council, a type of modern-day politburo of Putin's most powerful officials including influential hawks, was an important event.

"There will be a speech by the president," Peskov told reporters. "The rest, for obvious reasons, will be marked 'top secret'."

The 2-1/2-year-old Ukraine war has triggered the gravest confrontation between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis - which is considered to be the time when the two Cold War superpowers came closest to intentional nuclear war.

Putin, the primary decision maker on Russia's vast nuclear arsenal, is considering how to respond if the United States and its European allies allow Ukraine to use Western-supplied missiles to strike deep into Russia.

Putin said on Sept. 12 that the West would be directly fighting with Russia if it gave such permission to Ukraine - and that Russia would be forced to make "appropriate decisions".

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been urging Kyiv's allies for months to let Ukraine fire Western missiles including long-range U.S. ATACMS and British Storm Shadows deep into Russian territory to limit Moscow's ability to launch attacks.

Russia is the world's largest nuclear power. Together, Russia and the United States control 88% of the world's nuclear warheads.

FORCING PEACE?

Zelenskiy told the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday that the war between Russia and Ukraine cannot be calmed by talks alone, but that Moscow must be forced into peace.

"Such a position is a fatal mistake, a systemic mistake," Peskov said. "This is a profound misconception that will inevitably have consequences for the Kyiv regime. It is impossible to force Russia into peace."

Russia, which advanced in eastern Ukraine at the fastest pace in two years in August, controls just under a fifth of Ukraine, and Western leaders such as U.S. President Joe Biden have said the West cannot allow Putin to win the war.

NATO plans to coordinate the transport of a large number of wounded troops away from front lines in case of a war with Russia, potentially via hospital trains as air evacuations may not be feasible, a senior general told Reuters in an interview.

With Ukraine losing key towns in eastern Ukraine, the war is entering what Russian officials say is the most dangerous phase to date. Putin, who casts the West as a decadent aggressor, has warned that the United States is risking a global war over Ukraine.

Russia is in the process of revising its nuclear doctrine which sets out the circumstances in which it might resort to the use of nuclear weapons.

As the post-Soviet global consensus crumbles, so have the Cold War arms control treaties that sought to reduce the pace and danger of the arms race.

The Kremlin said that any discussions about a replacement to the U.S.-Russia New START Treaty, which expires in 2026, would need to take into account European nuclear potential - shorthand for the arsenals of Britain and France.

"We have not yet received a response from the Americans to this, but of course an agreement is needed and negotiations should begin as soon as possible," Peskov said when asked about a possible replacement for the New START Treaty.

(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov and Guy Faulconbridge, and Sabine Siebold in Berlin; Editing by Alex Richardson)