Russia will launch pre-emptive nuclear strike if West supplies Ukraine with nukes, Moscow warns: Dmitry Medvedev says West underestimates Putin’s drive to bring about Armageddon
- Former President Medvedev has warned that the war in Ukraine could last ‘decades’
Russia will launch a preemptive nuclear strike if the West supplies Ukraine with nuclear weapons, one of Vladimir Putin’s closest aides has said in a grim warning.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said the West does not understand Putin’s drive to bring about nuclear Armageddon.
A raving Medvedev also warned that the war in Ukraine could last “decades”, with long periods of fighting interspersed with truces.
Medvedev – now deputy head of Putin’s security council – warned the war had escalated further, with Ukraine receiving fighter jets, such as US F-16s, and ‘perhaps even nuclear weapons’ .
“There are irreversible rules of war,” he said during a trip to Vietnam. ‘If it’s about [deliveries of] nuclear weapons [to Ukraine]a preemptive strike will have to be carried out.
Russia will launch a preemptive nuclear strike if the West supplies Ukraine with nuclear weapons, one of Vladimir Putin’s closest aides has said in a grim warning. Pictured: The launch of a Sarmat nuclear missile in April 2022
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (pictured in Vietnam on May 23) said the West does not understand Putin’s drive to bring about a nuclear Armageddon
The West still does not understand this and mistakenly believes that Putin will not pull the nuclear trigger, Medvedev said.
“That will mean a missile with a nuclear warhead will come flying towards them,” he threatened.
Medvedev is the only other living man – apart from Putin – who has put his finger on the Russian nuclear button.
Putin is often seen with an official nearby obviously clutching his nuclear briefcase.
Meanwhile, Medvedev said the Kremlin feared a ‘guy with dementia’ might be elected to the White House, apparently referring to a second term for Joe Biden.
He said: ‘The only thing that matters is that a man with dementia doesn’t get elected. But it is possible.
For Russia, “historically, it’s always been easier for us to work with Republicans,” he said.
However, he said Republican frontrunner Donald Trump was “a nice guy, but a bit of a coward”.
A raving Medvedev also warned that the war in Ukraine could last “decades”, with long periods of fighting interspersed with truces. Pictured: Ukrainian soldiers aboard a tank drive along the road towards their positions near Bakhmut on Tuesday
Meanwhile, Medvedev said the conflict in Ukraine could last for decades with long periods of fighting.
“This conflict will go on for a very long time, most likely decades,” he said. ‘As long as there is such power in place [in Kyiv]there will be, say, three years of truce, two years of conflict, and everything will repeat itself.
That is why “it is necessary to destroy the very nature of Nazi power in kyiv”, he asserted.
Medvedev often makes harsh comments and last month described Ukrainian authorities as an infection.
The former president – despite Russian setbacks in the war and his prediction that it could drag on for years – insisted Ukraine would fall apart.
“It will depend on the direction the process of disintegration of this dying state following a lost military conflict takes,” he said.
“Either it will be a means of relatively slow erosion of the Ukrainian state with a gradual loss of the remaining elements of state sovereignty.
“Or instant collapse with simultaneous annihilation of all state characteristics.”
Medvedev served as Russia’s president from 2008 to 2012 and has been the country’s longest-serving prime minister since the collapse of communism.
