In what may be the sternest test yet for President Joe Biden, one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s top officials has all but threatened nuclear war should Ukraine manage to take any Russian land.
According to Reuters, Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president and current deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, took to social media to make the ominous proclamation.
The threat came shortly after reports began circulating about a drone strike against Moscow, which Russia blames on the Ukrainians.
On X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Medvedev posted the following:
By repelling the collective enemy’s counteroffensive, our Armed Forces are defending Russian citizens and our land. It is quite clear to all decent people.
Besides that, they are preventing global conflict.
Just imagine that the NATO-supported ukrobanderovtsy’s offensive turned…— Dmitry Medvedev (@MedvedevRussiaE) July 30, 2023
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Medvedev posted: “By repelling the collective enemy’s counteroffensive, our Armed Forces are defending Russian citizens and our land. It is quite clear to all decent people.
“Besides that, they are preventing global conflict.
“Just imagine that the NATO-supported… offensive turned out successful, and they took away a part of our land: then we would have to, following the President’s degree of 02.06.2020, use the nuclear weapon.
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“There would simply be no other way out. That’s why our enemies must worship our warriors. They are keeping global nuclear fire from flaring up.”
Medvedev ended his post with an additional not-so-veiled threat: “Congratulations on Russia’s Navy Day! P.S. The unmanned underwater vehicle Poseidon sends its greetings and recommends the enemies of our country to pray for all the Russian marines’ health.”
According to Reuters, Ukraine is attempting to reclaim “territory which Russia has unilaterally annexed and declared to be part of its own territory, a move condemned by Kyiv and much of the West,” which would be Crimea.
For Medvedev, this latest threat appears to continue something of a pattern.
During the brief coup attempt from the Wagner private military group, Medvedev warned that a successful coup would lead to nuclear annihilation, per Politico.
The outlet also notes that Medvedev once claimed that the war could come to swift end if Russia would just do what “the Americans did in 1945 when they deployed nuclear weapons and bombed two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”
Even when not casually threatening nuclear Armageddon, Medvedev has a particularly aggressive brand of rhetoric.
In January, in response to American support of Russian protests, Medvedev suggested bringing a Russian warship right along the American coast.
This is a breaking and developing story.
