(Reuters) - A&nbsp;Russian defence ministry&nbsp;journal&nbsp;says&nbsp;Moscow&nbsp;is developing a new type of military strategy&nbsp;using&nbsp;nuclear&nbsp;weapons to protect against&nbsp;possible&nbsp;U.S. aggression,&nbsp;RIA&nbsp;news agency reported on Thursday.
The article is the latest in a series of combative remarks by&nbsp;Russian politicians and commentators after the invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 last year, suggesting&nbsp;Moscow&nbsp;would, if necessary, be prepared to deploy its vast&nbsp;nuclear&nbsp;arsenal.
RIA&nbsp;said the article, published in the Voennaya Mysl (Military Thought) magazine, concluded Washington was worried it might be losing dominance over the world and had therefore "apparently" prepared plans to strike&nbsp;Russia&nbsp;to neutralise it.
In response,&nbsp;Russian specialists were "actively developing a promising form of the strategic&nbsp;use&nbsp;of the&nbsp;Russian armed forces - an operation of strategic deterrence forces",&nbsp;RIA&nbsp;said.
This, it continued, "presupposes the&nbsp;use&nbsp;of modern strategic&nbsp;offensive and defensive,&nbsp;nuclear&nbsp;and non-nuclear&nbsp;weapons, taking into account the latest military technologies".
Moscow, the article said, needed to be able to show the United States that it could not cripple&nbsp;Russia's&nbsp;nuclear&nbsp;missile system and would not be able to&nbsp;fend&nbsp;off&nbsp;a retaliatory strike.
Russia's defence ministry did not immediately respond to a query asking for confirmation of the&nbsp;RIA&nbsp;story.
Russian President Vladimir Putin last week suspended a landmark&nbsp;nuclear&nbsp;arms&nbsp;control treaty, announced new strategic systems had been put on combat duty, and threatened to resume&nbsp;nuclear&nbsp;tests.
Although&nbsp;Moscow&nbsp;says it would only&nbsp;use&nbsp;nuclear&nbsp;weapons in case&nbsp;Russia's territorial integrity were threatened, Putin allies have regularly suggested calamity could be close.
Former&nbsp;Russian President Dmitry Medvedev this week said the West's continued supply of weaponry to Kyiv risked a global catastrophe, repeating a threat of&nbsp;nuclear&nbsp;war over Ukraine.
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(Reporting by David Ljunggren, editing by Ron Popeski and Grant McCool)

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Russia journal: Moscow mulls possible use of nuclear arms to fend off US attack -RIA