Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday said he doesn’t believe the US and NATO would intervene if Russia launched a nuclear strike in Ukraine over fears of a “nuclear apocalypse” despite recent comments from US officials.
Medvedev, a former Russian president, also reiterated that Moscow believes it has the right to use nuclear weapons if Russia’s existence is threatened.
“Let’s imagine that Russia is forced to use its most formidable weapons against the Ukrainian regime, which has committed a large-scale act of aggression that is endangering the very existence of our state. I believe that NATO will not directly interfere in the conflict even in this scenario,” Medvedev wrote on Telegram.
The former Russian president said that the supplying of weapons to Ukraine was just a “business” for the Western powers and that their security is much more important than “the fate of a dying Ukraine.”
He said US and European “demagogues are not going to die in a nuclear apocalypse. That is why they will swallow the use of any weapon in the current conflict.”
Addressing the recent warnings from Russian President Vladimir Putin and other officials, Medvedev said Moscow’s position on nuclear weapons is “not a bluff.” Putin warned last week that Russia could use nuclear weapons to defend its “territorial integrity,” and Russian territory is set to expand into Ukraine.
Referendums on joining Russia concluded Tuesday in the breakaway Donbas republics of Luhansk and Donetsk and in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine. Russian-installed authorities reported overwhelming support for joining Russia, and Russian lawmakers are expected to move quickly to annex the territories.
Something very very sad: a mother sent out an email to the neighborhood email list thanking them most sincerely for supporting her elementary school daughter who had embroidered flowers on handkerchiefs, sold said items to the neighbors, and then somehow sent the donated $5600 (approximate amount from my memory) to Ukraine.
Russian markets and restaurants are closing in the SF Bay Area. Renaming of various businesses, so on. Ukraine flags fly everywhere, etc. War fever is the most insidious, infectious thing. It feels like a drug rush, like excellent caffeine, like being 17 and in love. Then as time passes and the ugly reality sets in there may be remorse, but first there is guilt-tripping: you are a quitter. Never negotiate. Never stop.
This is what makes war intractable: it lingers, persists, as warped persistent memories. Horrible, horrible things happen that become very hard to forgive let alone forget. War makes it impossible to move on. The US has the utter luxury of being isolated by immense oceans from where the blood is shed and the cities destroyed. Europe is not. What shame we Americans should feel for cheering for death and destruction in other countries.
There is nothing wrong with school kids raising money for war victims in Ukraine or Tigray or Yemen. I just wish American school kids had more empathy for war victims in Africa.
Of course raising money for war victims is a good (always assuming $$ get where intended), I was attempting to use this as example of how prevalent attitude is that only Ukrainians are worth helping. There is an inverse relationship between the actual knowledge re this conflict and the emotional investment people have about it.
Russia isn’t being invaded currently.
Russian speakers were being murdered and driven away since 2014. By the thousands. By Ukraine, which refused to honor the Minsk Accords meant to end the fighting.
BS.
This is the Big Lie baselessly repeated here
14,000 people have been killed in eight years, and 3/4 of those were combatant. The vast majority were also during the conflict in 2014-15, before the Minsk Accords.
“What shame we Americans should feel for cheering for death and destruction in other countries.” Let me fix that sentence. What shame we Americans should feel for knowing the obvious, that we do such things, but cheer for the Dallas Cowboys and the fly over on any Sunday.
I’m a Vietnam veteran. Bring back the draft for all those Americans who support Ukraine. Watch how quickly they will change their minds about fighting in war. “The US is willing to fight Russia to the last Ukrainian,” as Professor John Mearshimer said. Nixon got rid of the draft because the country was falling apart. Americans prefer to watch wars. It has become just another spectator sport.
Should we also bring back the draft for Americans who support Russia?
Beautifully written
And 100 % true.
Thank you
Mr. Medvedev is RIGHT. The war is in Ukraine thousands of Miles from the US. They would not want it expanded to them. All big talk to keep the Ukrainians fighting till their last soldier is killed.
Ukrainian Commander in the South has admitted that EACH LITTLE VICTORY WAS COVERED IN BLOOD. HOW MUCH MORE BLOOD HAVE THAY GOT TO GIVE?. The supply of mercenaries must be running low by now.
As a State Official, Nuclear Medvedev has been making Nuke threats for a while. Now wrongfully assuming the West will not intervene. They will and it will not be pretty for Russia.
Your crystal ball better than his? If the US won’t send various categories of conventional weapons to Ukraine how do you assume they’ll use nukes? And your “not pretty for Russia” is troll blather. A nuclear exchange won’t be pretty for anybody.
America has been sitting pretty for a long time. Protected by two oceans, friendly countries to the North and to the South. We export h*ll to other countries to protect and gather our “interests”, so safe ant secure, never having had the lands in America ravaged by war as the Middle East and Europe has. The situation created the likes of Victoria Nuland, Wolfowitz, subsequent American presidents to the current president, who uses a Leni Reifenstahl backdrop to expound, a nightmarish vision for me. The song Eve of Destruction was written for today.
I’m pretty sure my crystal ball is better than his, of course. I didn’t say the US will use Nukes. I said, they will intervene because the second that Russia goes nuclear, the US will response. Most likely conventional but they will, because there is no telling how many nuclear attacks Russia will launch.
Go become president of Russia and then compare yourself to Medvedev. And Russia isn’t going to go nuclear without existential provocation but if they do then nothing short of nuclear will matter at that point. I should think that would be obvious even to trolls. And if the US goes nuclear in response it will be Russian self defense against US common sense and like as not you won’t be commenting any more.
Your new darling, the Prime Minister of Britain, made nuclear threats too.
About time! Kremlin has been for 7 months now.
The US does not have a “No First Use” of nukes policy and until we do, criticizing another nation is pure unadulterated hypocrisy.
In 1947 I visited Germany (1). I saw the immense destruction. I saw the victims hobbling on crutches or being pushed in wheelchairs. My revulsion of war grew exponentially. How can anyone wish that this war continues until either Ukraine or Russia “wins”? That is insane.
(1) at that time I lived in Amsterdam.
My father (U.S. Army) deployed to the Middle East, North Africa, Europe. What he saw and experienced made him a pacifist the rest of his life.
Of course they won’t. For the west, the loss of millions of American and European consumer tax paying slaves is the ultimate purgatory. What good is power and status when you have no one to command over.
Rational assumptions about the US government are irrational.
Only to an ignorant person.
Calling someone ignorant makes an ig out of or or ant.
So proud of you!
The Russians might believe this.
That is dangerous.
There are many neocons who have since Rumsfeld talked of making our nukes “usable.” They would like that.
Medvedev is just trolling here. There is zero chance of Ukraine doing anything to threaten the Russian state, short of the US providing nukes to Ukraine or using them itself.
I don’t know why idiots keep repeating “Russia will use nukes to protect its territory and Russia is expanding territory into Ukraine” as if it means something. Russia has zero need to use nukes in Ukraine no matter how much Ukraine throws a few shells into the new territories. That just means Russia will push further into Ukraine until Ukraine no longer exists (or surrenders). Then we’ll see if Poland wants to shell the new Russian-controlled Ukraine. Good luck with that.
It seems apparent that Vlad has his hand so far up Medvedev’s exhaust pipe that it has caused him to go completely insane. LOL