White House criticizes Russia's position on nuclear weapons: 'Irresponsible rhetoric'

The White House condemned Russia's position on nuclear weapons, calling it "irresponsible rhetoric." The statement comes after Vladimir Putin changed the rules for carrying out such attacks.

According to the official TASS news agency, the new document signed by Putin and governing the use of nuclear weapons also states that Moscow will consider any offensive by a nation without nuclear capabilities (such as Ukraine) with the "support" of "a nuclear power" (such as the United States) as "a joint attack."

"This is more of the same irresponsible rhetoric from Russia, the same we've seen for the past two years," a spokesman for the US National Security Council told AFP.

US officials recently confirmed that President Joe Biden, who is in Rio de Janeiro for the G20 summit, gave Ukraine the green light for the use of long-range missiles against Russia's territory.

"We are not surprised by Russia's announcement on updating its nuclear doctrine," the spokesman said, recalling that for several weeks Moscow had given "signs of its intention."

"Noting no changes in Russia's nuclear position, we see no reason to modify our own position or our doctrine in response to Russia's statements today," he added.

Ukraine attacked a Russian military facility on the border region of Bryansk during the early hours of Tuesday morning. It did so, according to initial reports, with US-supplied ATACMS medium-range missiles. It is the first attack with this weapon system in Russian territory since the beginning of the conflict.