Dmitry Medvedev, a close supporter of Vladimir Putin and a former Russian president, has warned NATO that a Russian defeat in Ukraine may trigger a nuclear exchange.
In a message sent to the messaging service Telegram, Medvedev, Putin's powerful security council's deputy chairman, cautioned that nuclear war might break out if nuclear power is defeated in a conventional struggle.
According to Medvedev, who served as president from 2008 to 2012, "Nuclear powers have never lost important conflicts on which their fate rests."
He urged NATO and other Western defence officials who will be meeting this Friday at Ramstein Air Base in Germany to debate their support for Ukraine and to consider the effects of their actions.
The Kremlin immediately defended Medvedev when he made his remarks, saying they were consistent with Moscow's ideals.
When “aggression against the Russian Federation with conventional weapons when the very existence of the state is threatened,” Moscow’s doctrine allows for a nuclear assault.
At 57 years old, Medvedev has reinvented himself as the most outwardly hardline member of Putin’s entourage, despite having previously presented himself as a reformer willing to engage with the United States to liberalise Russia.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022—almost a year ago—Medvedev has regularly warned of nuclear anarchy and criticised the West.
The United States and Russia, the two major nuclear powers, together control almost 90% of all nuclear warheads.
The United States has 5,428, whereas Russia has 5,977 nuclear warheads, China has 350, France has 290, and the United Kingdom has 225, as the Federation of American Scientists reported.
Because of his position as president, Putin makes the final call on whether or not Russia will use nuclear weapons.
What Washington would do if Putin ordered the first use of nuclear weapons in war since the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 is unknown.
Although NATO is more powerful than Russia in terms of conventional military might, Russia is more powerful than NATO in terms of nuclear weapons.
According to Putin, Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine is a fight to the death against an aggressive and arrogant West, and Russia would resort to “all available means” to win.
As a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, the region is now experiencing one of the worst conflicts in Europe since World War II and the largest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.
Ukraine has vowed to fight until the last Russian soldier leaves its country, while the United States and its allies have denounced the incursion as an imperial land grab.
Putin has provided multiple hints that Moscow will not back down since his gloomy New Year’s Eve statement portraying the West as Russia’s main opponent in the war on Ukraine.
He’s already sent hypersonic missiles across the Atlantic and put his best general in charge of Russia’s military.
Putin claimed on Wednesday that Russia’s military-industrial complex, a key factor in the country’s success in Ukraine, was increasing production.