Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, a close ally of Vladimir Putin, on Wednesday raised the specter of Russia using nuclear weapons on several Western cities — including Washington.
Medvedev, who serves Putin as deputy secretary of the Russian Security Council, warned of a global nuclear war if his country is forced to return territories it has seized in Ukraine throughout its two-year war.
The Kyiv Independent reported Medvedev made the threat on the platform Telegram.
“Attempts to restore Russia’s 1991 borders will lead only to one thing — a global war with Western countries with the use of our entire strategic (nuclear) arsenal against Kyiv, Berlin, London, and Washington. And against all other beautiful historic places that have long been included in the flight targets of our nuclear triad,” he posted, according to the Ukrainian outlet’s translation.
The territories in question are Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Luhansk and Kherson — each of which Russia seized when it invaded Ukraine before a stalled offensive into Kyiv ultimately resulted in a stalemate.
According to former Ukrainian official Anton Gerashchenko, Medvedev also claimed a loss of Russia’s gains in the war would result in a collapse of the country and the deaths of millions of people.
Gerashchenko shared a translation of the Russian’s remarks on the X social media platform on Sunday.
“OK. Let’s imagine for a moment that Russia lost and ‘Ukraine with its allies won,” Medvedev wrote, according to the post. “What for our enemies — the neo-Nazis with their Western sponsors — would be such a victory?
“Well, as it has been said many times, a return to the borders of 1991. That is, the direct and irreversible collapse of present-day Russia, which constitutionally includes the new territories. And then a furious civil war with the final disappearance of our country from the world map. Tens of millions of victims. The death of our future. The collapse of everything in the world.”
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He asked, “Do these idiots really believe that the people of Russia will swallow such a division of their country?”
Medvedev concluded the deaths of countless people worldwide would mean little for a Russia that would, as he put it, disappear.
“Will we have the guts for this if the disappearance of a thousand-year-old country, our great homeland, is at stake, and the sacrifices made by the people of Russia over the centuries will be in vain?” he concluded, according to Gerashchenko.
More threats of nuclear war from Dmitry Medvedev.
The deputy head of the Russian Security Council has said that Russia will use nuclear weapons if Ukraine achieves its goal in the war, i.e. reaching the 1991 borders.
In this case, Medvedev said, Russia would then strike not… https://t.co/bQxDijqXrl pic.twitter.com/AZObl5wZhs
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) February 18, 2024
Medvedev has issued numerous threats of global nuclear war in the past.
Russia may be forced to use a nuclear weapon if Ukraine’s counteroffensive succeeds, senior Russian official Dmitry Medvedev said.https://t.co/3AhucfBGW5
— CNN International (@cnni) July 31, 2023
Putin has not commented on the statement from his deputy or issued a similar threat of his own.
Last week, the U.S. Senate approved more than $90 billion in new aid, much of which would go to Ukraine’s military if it passes in the House.
According to a report Tuesday from Reuters, Putin sought a cease-fire in Ukraine in recent months but officials in Washington were uninterested.
