Russia may be forced to employ nuclear weapons if Ukraine’s counteroffensive is successful, warned a top Russian official on Sunday.
In a message posted to his official social media account, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who now serves as deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, suggested that the Kremlin could fall back on its own nuclear doctrine, which calls for nuclear weapons to be employed in response to aggression carried out against Russia that includes conventional weapons.
That response has typically been reserved should the existence of the Russian state be threatened, but Medvedev has suggested that could also include the loss of territory that Russia sees as its own – including Crimea.
“Imagine if the … offensive, which is backed by NATO, was a success and they tore off a part of our land then we would be forced to use a nuclear weapon according to the rules of a decree from the president of Russia,” Medvedev wrote on the Telegram social messaging app.
“There would simply be no other option. So our enemies should pray for our warriors’ (success). They are making sure that a global nuclear fire is not ignited,” he added.
Nuclear Saber Rattling by Russia over Ukraine
This is not the first time that Medvedev, who served as president of Russia from 2008 to 2012 and who now remains one of Moscow’s most hawkish voices, has raised the specter of nuclear conflict. In April 2022, he warned of Russian nuclear expansion should Sweden and Finland join the NATO alliance – while last September he also suggested that strategic nuclear weapons could be employed to defend territories incorporated into Russia from Ukraine.
In January of this year, he further cautioned that a defeat for Russia in the war in Ukraine could lead to nuclear conflict.
“The loss of a nuclear power in a conventional war can provoke the outbreak of a nuclear war,” Medvedev wrote on Telegram in January. “Nuclear powers do not lose major conflicts on which their fate depends. This should be obvious to anyone. Even to a Western politician who has retained at least some trace of intelligence.”
The comments have been seen as a form of saber rattling, and in the past, Kremlin critics have accused Medvedev of making extreme statements in an effort to dissuade Western countries from continuing to supply Ukraine with arms, Reuters reported.
Russia’s War of Liberation?
Medvedev further suggested that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is actually “preventing” the very global war he increasingly warns about.
“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,” he said via a tweet on Sunday.
“Just imagine that the NATO-supported ukrobanderovtsy’s 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. There would simply be no other way out,” Medvedev added. “That’s why our enemies must worship our warriors. They are keeping global nuclear fire from flaring up.”
Medvedev and others in the Kremlin have long sought to tie the current “special military operation” as an effort to denazify Ukraine, citing how the followers of Ukrainian nationalist leader Stepan Bandera waged a violent campaign for Ukrainian independence in the 1930s and 1940s. Bandera had pledged to support Nazi Germany during the Second World War, and reference to “Banderites” featured heavily in Russian propaganda following the unprovoked invasion in February 2022.
The calls for the use of nuclear weapons were made just hours after Moscow came under a drone attack near the city’s business district. It was the fourth such attack on the Russian capital this month.
Author Experience and Expertise
A Senior Editor for 19FortyFive, Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu.
