- Medvedev: nuclear forces do not lose major wars
- Nuclear war is possible if a nuclear power loses, he says
- Medvedev tells NATO to think about the risks
- NATO and defense leaders to meet in Germany
MOSCOW, Jan 19 (Reuters) – Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, an ally of Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, warned the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on Thursday that Russia’s defeat in Ukraine could trigger a nuclear war.
“The defeat of a nuclear power in a conventional war could trigger a nuclear war,” Medvedev, who is deputy chairman of Putin’s powerful Security Council, said in a Telegram post.
“Nuclear forces have never lost major conflicts on which their fate depends,” said Medvedev, who was president from 2008 to 2012.
Medvedev said NATO and other defense leaders, who are due to meet at Ramstein air base in Germany on Friday to discuss strategy and support for the West’s attempt to defeat Russia in Ukraine, should think about the risks of their policies .
Russia and the United States, the largest nuclear powers, hold about 90% of the world’s nuclear warheads. It is Putin who makes the final decision on the use of nuclear weapons.
While NATO has conventional military superiority over Russia when it comes to nuclear weapons, Russia has nuclear superiority over the alliance in Europe.
Putin described Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine as an existential battle with an aggressive and arrogant West and said Russia would use all available means to defend itself and its people against any aggressor.
WAR
Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine sparked one of Europe’s deadliest conflicts since World War II and the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
The United States and its allies have denounced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as an imperial land grab, while Ukraine has vowed to fight until the last Russian soldier is expelled from its territory.
After a dark New Year’s Eve message describing the West as Russia’s real enemy in the war against Ukraine, Putin has sent several signals that Russia will not back down. He has sent hypersonic missiles into the Atlantic and appointed his top general to lead the war.
Putin said on Wednesday that Russia’s powerful military-industrial complex is ramping up production and that is one of the main reasons his country is gaining ground in Ukraine.
Russia’s nuclear doctrine allows for a nuclear strike after “aggression against the Russian Federation with conventional weapons when the very existence of the state is threatened.”
Washington has not detailed what it will do if Putin orders what would be the first use of nuclear weapons in war since the United States unleashed the first atomic bomb attacks on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
Medvedev, 57, who once portrayed himself as a reformer who was willing to work with the United States to liberalize Russia, has transformed since the war as the most publicly hawkish member of Putin’s circle.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine, Medvedev has repeatedly raised the threat of nuclear chaos and used insults to describe the West.
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.
Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow and Felix Light in Tbilisi; Editing by Nick McPhee
Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Add Comment