Medvedev threatens nuclear attack if defeated
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has threatened the West with a nuclear strike. “The defeat of a nuclear power in a conventional war can trigger a nuclear war,” Medvedev, who is deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, wrote on Telegram on Thursday. “Nuclear powers have never lost major conflicts on which their fate depends,” added Medvedev, who was Russia’s president from 2008 to 2012. In the past few months, he had repeatedly threatened the western states that Russia would take drastic steps if they increased their military aid to Ukraine.
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, made a similar statement. “We pray to the Lord to bring the madmen to their senses and help them understand that any desire to destroy Russia will mean the end of the world,” he said in a sermon. The leadership in Moscow repeatedly emphasizes that the West, and above all the USA, wanted to destroy Russia. Western governments vehemently disagree. Just help Ukraine defend itself against a war started by Moscow on February 24, 2022.
When asked if Medvedev’s comments mean that Russia is taking the crisis to a new level, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “No, it absolutely doesn’t mean that.” Nuclear strike after an “aggression against the Russian Federation with conventional weapons (permitted) when the existence of the state itself is threatened.”