A former Russian president on Friday warned that Moscow is not bluffing about its willingness to use tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine and said Kyiv’s international backers are making a “fatal mistake” if they think otherwise.
Dmitry Medvedev, an ally of Vladimir Putin and the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, made the menacing remarks in reaction to reports that Western countries—including the U.S.—have given Ukraine permission to use their supplied weapons to strike targets inside Russia. “The current military conflict with the West is developing according to the worst possible scenario,” Medvedev wrote on Telegram.
“Russia regards all long-range weapons used by Ukraine as already being directly controlled by servicemen from NATO countries,” Medvedev wrote. He claimed that such activity does not constitute “military assistance” to Ukraine, but rather active “participation in a war against us.”
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Medvedev claimed such actions “could well become a casus belli,” meaning an action which provokes war.
He went on to claim that NATO countries who control Ukraine’s long-range weapons or send a contingent of troops to support Kyiv would be committing a “serious escalation of the conflict.”
“Ukraine and its NATO allies will receive a response of such destructive force that the Alliance itself simply will not be able to resist being drawn into the conflict,” he said.
Medvedev also said “retired NATO farts” who claim that Russia would never use a tactical nuclear weapon—bombs designed for use on the battlefield which have typically lower yields than strategic nukes—had previously “miscalculated” by asserting that Russia “would not enter into an open military conflict” with Ukraine.
A similar error of judgment could also be happening about Russia’s readiness to use a tactical nuke, Medvedev said. This, he claims, “would be a fatal mistake.”
“After all, as the President of Russia rightly noted, European countries have a very high population density,” Medvedev said, referring to Putin’s threats earlier this week amid reports that European nations would allow Kyiv to attack Russian territory with weapons they’d supplied.
Medvedev said there is also a “potential” for Russia to strike hostile countries with strategic weapons. “This is, alas, neither intimidation nor bluffing,” he said.
“There is a constant escalation when it comes to the firepower of NATO weapons being used,” Medvedev added. “Therefore, nobody today can rule out the conflict’s transition to its final stage.”
