Russia's Medvedev threatens West with nuclear war if Ukraine wins

Former Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev warned the West on Thursday that a defeat for Russia in Ukraine could lead to a nuclear war, according to news reports.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin and former leader Dmitry Medvedev (right).

Photo: Kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

"The defeat of a nuclear power in a conventional war may trigger a nuclear war," Medvedev said in a post on the Telegram messaging service, as cited by the Reuters news agency.

"Nuclear powers have never lost major conflicts on which their fate depends," he added.

Another day, another nuclear threat from Medvedev

"Losing a nuclear power in a conventional war could trigger a nuclear war. Nuclear powers haven’t lost conflicts that affect their fate," #Medvedev said in response to Scholz's statement that "Russia must lose to achieve peace." pic.twitter.com/2NJMCKty8m

— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) January 19, 2023

Medvedev, who was president of Russia from 2008 to 2012 and is now deputy chairman of its Security Council, was speaking on the eve of a meeting of NATO defence ministers to discuss stepped-up support for Ukraine at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Medvedev's remarks were in full accordance with Russia's nuclear doctrine, Reuters reported.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday: "We will do everything so that our colleagues from NATO and the European Union sober up as soon as possible."

Thursday is day 330 of Russia’s war against Ukraine.

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Source: IAR, PAP, Reuters