- Medvedev: Nuclear powers do not lose major wars
- A nuclear war is possible if a nuclear power loses, he says
- Medvedev calls on NATO to think about the risks
- Patriarch: Wanting to destroy Russia would mean the end of the world
MOSCOW, Jan 19 (Portal) – Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, an ally of Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, warned NATO on Thursday that Russia’s defeat in Ukraine could trigger a nuclear war.
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church struck a similar tone at what he called a fearful time for the country, saying trying to destroy Russia would mean the end of the world.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine, Medvedev has repeatedly raised the threat of a nuclear apocalypse, but his acknowledgment of the possibility of Russia’s defeat shows the depth of Moscow’s concerns about increased Western arms sales to Ukraine.
“The defeat of a nuclear power in a conventional war can trigger a nuclear war,” Medvedev, who is deputy chair of Putin’s powerful Security Council, said in a post on Telegram.
“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 other defense leaders, who are scheduled to meet Friday at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany to discuss strategy and support for the West’s attempt to defeat Russia in Ukraine, should discuss the risks of their policies think.
Russia and the United States, by far the largest nuclear powers, own about 90% of the world’s nuclear warheads. Putin is the ultimate decision maker on the use of nuclear weapons.
Asked if Medvedev’s comments mean that Russia is escalating the crisis to a new level, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “No, it absolutely doesn’t mean that.”
He said Medvedev’s comments were in full compliance with Russia’s nuclear doctrine, which allows a nuclear strike after “an aggression against the Russian Federation with conventional weapons when the existence of the state is threatened.”
While NATO is conventionally superior to Russia militarily, Russia has nuclear superiority over the Alliance in Europe when it comes to nuclear weapons.
Calling Russia’s “military special operation” in Ukraine an existential struggle with an aggressive and arrogant West, Putin said Russia will use all available means to protect itself and its people.
“ALARMING TIME”
Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine sparked one of the deadliest European 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 condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as an imperial land grab, while Ukraine has vowed to fight until the last Russian soldier is driven from its territory.
Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, said in a sermon: “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. “
“Today is an alarming time,” he was quoted as saying by the state news agency RIA. “But we believe that the Lord will not leave the Russian land.”
NOT TO GO BACK
Since a somber New Year’s Eve message calling the West Russia’s real enemy in the war against Ukraine, Putin has repeatedly signaled that Russia will not back down. He has sent hypersonic missiles into the Atlantic and appointed his top general to wage the war.
Putin on Wednesday said Russia’s powerful military-industrial complex is ramping up production and is one of the main reasons his country will prevail in Ukraine.
Washington has not publicly detailed what it would do if Putin ordered the first use of nuclear weapons in a war since the United States unleashed the first atomic bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
William Burns, director of the US Central Intelligence Agency, warned Putin’s spy chief Sergei Naryshkin in November of the consequences of Russia using nuclear weapons, US officials said at the time.
According to the Federation of American Scientists, Russia has 5,977 nuclear warheads, while the United States has 5,428, China 350, France 290, and the United Kingdom 225.
Medvedev, 57, who once presented himself as a reformer willing to work with the United States to liberalize Russia, has re-emerged as the most publicly combative member of Putin’s circle since the war.
He said the nuclear risks of the Ukraine crisis should be clear to any Western politician who has “preserved at least some traces of intelligence.”
Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow and Felix Light in Tbilisi; Editing by Mark Trevelyan
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