Russia issues clarification on changing its nuclear doctrine, and Zelensky presents allies with a list of "urgent" requests

On Monday, Russia issued an explanation of its position on the possibility of changing its nuclear doctrine in light of the conflict in Ukraine and tensions with the West, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky directed urgent requests to the Group of Seven countries, which pledged during a virtual summit to provide more military support to Kiev.

Russian presidential spokesman (Kremlin) Dmitry Peskov said that his country does not intend to quickly change its nuclear doctrine.

The Russian news agency Interfax quoted Peskov as saying that there is a continuous process of thinking and analysis at the expert level on the situation in the world.

The Kremlin spokesman's comments come days after statements by Russian President Vladimir Putin, in which he said that his country might officially consider adding to its military doctrine the possibility of directing the first preventive nuclear strike to disarm an opponent.

Putin also warned that the danger of nuclear war is escalating, despite his assertion that the Russian nuclear strategy works on the principle of response and defense.

Washington described Putin and other Russian officials' hints to use nuclear weapons in the context of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine since February 24 as irresponsible, and warned of the consequences of any such action.

According to the Russian Nuclear Doctrine of 2020, the use of nuclear weapons is possible only if the enemy first uses these or other weapons of mass destruction against Russia or its allies.

Also according to this doctrine, the use of nuclear weapons is also possible if Russia's existence is threatened by conventional weapons.

Promises and requests

On the other hand, the leaders of the Group of Seven industrialized countries (the United States, Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Canada and Japan) pledged Monday, in a video conference meeting with the participation of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, to provide Ukraine with air defense systems and capabilities.

The leaders agreed on key elements for creating a platform to coordinate financial aid to Ukraine.

German Chancellor Olaf Schultz said after the meeting that the goal of the platform is to quickly provide support to Ukraine with the participation of Kyiv, international financial institutions and other partners.

In a video intervention during the meeting, Zelensky asked the G7 leaders to provide his country with an additional two billion cubic meters of gas this winter, after a series of Russian strikes destroyed many Ukrainian energy facilities, causing electricity and heating to be cut off for millions of Ukrainians.

The Ukrainian president also called on the major industrial countries to provide his country with more weapons, including modern tanks, rocket artillery and more long-range missiles.

Zelensky proposed holding a special summit called the "Global Peace Formula Summit" in order to "determine how and when to implement the points of the Ukrainian peace formula" that guarantee Ukraine's security and territorial integrity, calling on Moscow to take a concrete step towards a diplomatic settlement to the conflict.

The Ukrainian president also demanded that Russia withdraw its forces from his country by Christmas in late December.

Borrell (right) speaks to the foreign ministers of Sweden (left) and Finland during the EU foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels (Anatolia)

European support

In Brussels, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell announced on Monday that the EU foreign ministers had agreed to allocate more than two billion euros to support Ukraine militarily.

Borrell said at the end of a meeting of EU foreign ministers that differences prevented reaching an agreement on imposing a ninth package of sanctions on Russia.

However, the European ministers decided to put about 200 Russian people and entities on the EU sanctions list.