Investors dash to safe-haven currencies after Putin updates nuclear doctrine and Ukraine fires missiles into Russia
Global stock markets fell and bond prices have jumped after reports that Ukraine had fired a US-made long-range missile into Russia for the first time and Vladimir Putin approved changes to Moscow’s nuclear doctrine.
Investors dashed into safe-haven currencies such as the US dollar, the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc on Tuesday, after the RBC-Ukraine news outlet reported that Kyiv had carried out its first strike on Russian territory using western-supplied missiles.
Moscow said later that Ukraine had fired six US-made Atacms missiles at Russia’s Bryansk region, after Joe Biden’s decision last weekend to relax restrictions on their use. Senior US and Ukrainian officials confirmed that US-made Atacms missiles had been fired into Russian territory.
Earlier on Tuesday, Putin signed a decree lowering the threshold for using nuclear weapons. The revised doctrine declares that a conventional attack on Russia by any nation that is supported by a nuclear power will be considered a joint attack.
