MOSCOW — Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, an ally of Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, warned NATO on Thursday that the defeat of Russia in Ukraine may set off a nuclear struggle.
Striking an analogous tone at what he described as an anxious time for the nation, the top of the Russian Orthodox Church stated making an attempt to destroy Russia would imply the top of the world.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine, Medvedev has repeatedly raised the risk of a nuclear apocalypse, however his admission now of the opportunity of Russia’s defeat signifies the extent of Moscow’s concern over elevated Western weapons deliveries to Ukraine.
“The defeat of a nuclear power in a conventional war may trigger a nuclear war,” Medvedev, who serves as deputy chairman of Putin’s highly effective safety council, stated in a submit on Telegram.
“Nuclear powers have never lost major conflicts on which their fate depends,” stated Medvedev, who served as president from 2008 to 2012.
Medvedev stated NATO and different protection leaders, attributable to meet at Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Friday to speak about technique and help for the West’s try to defeat Russia in Ukraine, ought to take into consideration the dangers of their coverage.
Russia and the United States, by far the most important nuclear powers, maintain round 90% of the world’s nuclear warheads. Putin is the last word choice maker on the usage of nuclear weapons.
Asked if Medvedev’s remarks signified that Russia was escalating the disaster to a brand new degree, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated: “No, it absolutely does not mean that.”
He stated Medvedev’s remarks have been in full accordance with Russia’s nuclear doctrine which permits for a nuclear strike after “aggression against the Russian Federation with conventional weapons when the very existence of the state is threatened.”
While NATO has typical navy superiority over Russia, in the case of nuclear weapons, Russia has nuclear superiority over the alliance in Europe.
Putin casts Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine as an existential battle with an aggressive and conceited West, and has stated that Russia will use all accessible means to guard itself and its folks.
‘Alarming time’
Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine has triggered one of many deadliest European conflicts since World War Two and the largest confrontation between Moscow and the West because the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
The United States and its allies have condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as an imperial land seize, whereas Ukraine has vowed to struggle till the final Russian soldier is ejected from its territory.
Patriarch Kirill, the top of the Russian Orthodox Church, stated in a sermon: “We pray to the Lord that he bring the madmen to reason and help them understand that any desire to destroy Russia will mean the end of the world.”
“Today is an alarming time,” state news company RIA quoted him as saying. “But we believe that the Lord will not leave Russian land.”
Not backing down
Since a grim New Year’s Eve message describing the West as Russia’s true enemy within the struggle on Ukraine, Putin has despatched a number of alerts that Russia is not going to again down. He has dispatched hypersonic missiles to the Atlantic and appointed his high basic to run the struggle.
Putin stated on Wednesday that Russia’s highly effective military-industrial advanced was ramping up manufacturing and was one of many foremost the reason why his nation would prevail in Ukraine.
Washington has not detailed in public what it will do if Putin ordered what can be the primary use of nuclear weapons in struggle because the United States unleashed the primary atomic bomb assaults on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
US Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns cautioned Putin’s spy chief Sergei Naryshkin in November concerning the penalties of any use of nuclear weapons by Russia, US officers stated on the time.
Russia has 5,977 nuclear warheads whereas the United States has 5,428, China 350, France 290 and the United Kingdom 225, in keeping with the Federation of American Scientists.
Medvedev, 57, who as soon as introduced himself as a reformer who was able to work with the United States to liberalize Russia, has recast himself because the struggle as probably the most publicly hawkish member of Putin’s circle.
He stated that the nuclear dangers of the Ukraine disaster must be apparent to any Western politicians who had “preserved at least some traces of intelligence.” — Reuters
