US "not surprised" by update to Russia's nuclear doctrine

Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh at the Pentagon on January 29. 

Pool

The US is “not surprised” that Russia updated their nuclear doctrine to consider aggression from any non-nuclear state with the participation of a nuclear country a joint attack on Moscow, as Russia had been “signaling” that they would do so “over the last several weeks,” a Defense Department spokesperson said.

“It’s the same irresponsible rhetoric that we’ve seen before and that we’ve seen, frankly, for the past two years,” said Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh.

“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,” said Singh.

Singh also said the US does not currently “see any changes that need to be made” to the US nuclear posture.