A Kremlin insider warned Thursday that Russia could launch a nuclear war if it loses its conventional war in Ukraine.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council and a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, voiced the threat in a post on the messaging app Telegram.
“The loss of a nuclear power in a conventional war can provoke the outbreak of a nuclear war,” Medvedev wrote in a post criticizing the western powers ahead of a Friday meeting in Germany to discuss further military support for Ukraine.
Medvedev, who was President of Russia from 2008 to 2012, added: “The nuclear powers do not lose the major conflicts on which their fate depends.”
Dozens of Ukraine’s allies are set to meet at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany on Friday to discuss the next round of military aid to Ukraine, ahead of an expected pick-up in fighting in the spring.
Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, said a Russian military defeat in Ukraine could trigger a nuclear war. Kommersant Photo / Polaris
While several countries, including the US, Germany and France, have pledged to provide armored fighting vehicles to Ukraine in recent weeks, allied nations are reportedly at odds over sending large main battle tanks to Kyiv.
During the last 11 months of the war, both Ukrainian and Russian armed forces have relied on the Soviet-era T-72 main battle tank as the mainstay of their armored forces. Kyiv has urged its western allies to send more advanced tanks, such as the German Leopard 2 tank or the American M1 Abrams.
Ukrainian leaders have argued that the more capable tanks would allow them to breach a front line that has remained relatively static in the months since Ukraine’s successful counteroffensive.
Firefighters from Ukraine’s State Ambulance Service carry a wounded woman from the rubble of a multi-story building after a Russian missile attack on Dnipro, Ukraine.AP
Military medics carry a soldier wounded in a battle to an evacuation vehicle near Kremenna in Luhansk region, Ukraine, Monday, January 16, 2023.AP
Smoke rises as Donetsk emergency workers work at a shopping mall site AP
Since Russia’s invasion of its neighbor began in February, the Kremlin has rattled its nuclear saber to thwart Western intervention. However, Medvedev’s comment marks the first time Moscow has acknowledged the possibility of defeat.
When asked if Medvedev’s nuclear rhetoric indicated an escalation of the crisis, Kremlin flarer Dmitry Peskov said no.
“It doesn’t mean that at all,” Peskow said.
Russia’s longstanding doctrine allows the use of nuclear weapons after “an aggression against the Russian Federation with conventional weapons when the existence of the state is threatened,” Peskov said.
With mail wires