Medvedev has repeatedly raised the threat of a nuclear apocalypse, but his now admission of the possibility of a Russian defeat is an indication of Moscow’s level of concern
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, an ally of Vladimir Putin, warned NATO today that a Russian defeat in Ukraine could spark a nuclear war.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine, Medvedev has repeatedly raised the threat of a nuclear apocalypse, but his admission now of the possibility of a Russian defeat is an indication of the level of Moscow’s concerns about increased supplies of Western arms to Ukraine.
“The defeat of a nuclear power in a conventional war may trigger a nuclear war,” Medvedev, who is deputy chairman of Putin’s powerful Security Council, said in a Telegram post.
“Nuclear powers have never lost major conflicts on which their fate depends,” said Medvedev, who was president from 2008 to 2012.
Medvedev said NATO and the defense chiefs of about 50 countries, who are expected to meet tomorrow at Ramstein air base in Germany to discuss strategy and support for the West’s effort to defeat Russia in Ukraine, should consider the risks of their politics.
Russia and the US, by far the largest nuclear powers, possess about 90% of the world’s nuclear warheads. It is Putin who makes the final decision on the use of such weapons.
Asked if Medvedev’s comments meant Russia was escalating the crisis to a new level, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “No, it doesn’t mean that at all.”
He said Medvedev’s comments were in full agreement with Russia’s nuclear doctrine, which allows for a nuclear strike following “aggression against the Russian Federation with conventional weapons when the very existence of the state is threatened.”
While NATO has conventional arms military superiority over Russia, Russia has nuclear superiority over the alliance in Europe.
Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine has sparked one of Europe’s deadliest conflicts since World War II and the biggest standoff between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
The US and its allies have condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine, while Kyiv has vowed to fight until the last Russian soldier is expelled from the country.
Russia has 5,977 nuclear warheads, while the US has 5,428, China 350, France 290 and the UK 225, according to the Federation of American Scientists (FAS).
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