| This week's decision from US President Joe Biden to allow Ukraine to use its weapons to strike inside Russia has already escalated the conflict and further embittered Putin. On the evening of 21 November, Vladimir Putin made an emergency address to Russians, stating they had struck Ukraine with its newest ballistic missile, the Oreshnik, "in response to the aggressive actions of NATO countries". 'The regional conflict in Ukraine has acquired elements of a global character', he said. The Oreshnik is a weapon intended for delivering a nuclear payload. Although this time, the missile was not nuclear, the main purpose of the strike was obviously to demonstrate Russia's readiness to use them. This urgent appeal, which alarmed the entire Russian-speaking media space, was the response to the decision of Biden, as well as the UK and France, to allow Ukraine to use their military systems to strike deep into enemy territory. Since then, at least two attacks by Ukrainian forces on recognised Russian territory are known to have taken place. On the night of 19 November, six American long-range ATACMS missiles struck a military facility in the Bryansk region, and British Storm Shadow cruise missiles were found in Kursk. Although military experts say the use of US missiles could help Ukraine defend a captured piece of Russian territory in the Kursk region, using it as a bargaining chip, it is unlikely that strikes on recognised Russian territory will move Putin towards any peace negotiations. Rather, it is the opposite, as we can already see it has made him even angrier. Two days later, after Biden's decision, Putin signed an updated nuclear deterrence doctrine, suggesting the basis for a nuclear strike could be "aggression against the Russian Federation and its allies by any non-nuclear state with the support of a nuclear state". | 