Putin’s loyalist threatens nuclear war with NATO if Russia loses in Ukraine

On Thursday, a Putin supporter warned NATO that a Russian victory in Ukraine might start a nuclear conflict. In contrast, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church declared that the world would end if the West attempted to attack Russia.

Photo by Sara Vihavainen

On the eve of a meeting of Ukraine’s partners to discuss delivering Kyiv more weaponry, such apocalyptic rhetoric is meant to dissuade the U.S.-led NATO military alliance from getting even more engaged in the conflict.

Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president who now serves as the deputy head of Putin’s influential security council, stated in a message on Telegram that “The loss of a nuclear power in a conventional conflict may precipitate a nuclear war.” 

Medvedev, who presided from 2008 to 2012, stated that nuclear nations “have never lost significant confrontations on which their survival rests.”

To bolster the West’s effort to help Ukraine defeat Russia on the battleground, NATO and other defence officials are scheduled to gather on Friday at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. Medvedev said they should consider the dangers associated with their plan.

Medvedev has regularly threatened nuclear war since Russia invaded Ukraine, but his admission that Russia may lose shows how worried Moscow is about escalating Western armament shipments to Ukraine.

When asked if Medvedev’s comments meant Russia was taking the issue to a new level, Dmitry Peskov, a spokesperson for the Kremlin, responded, “No, it does not indicate that.”

He said that Medvedev’s comments were entirely consistent with Russian nuclear policy, which permits nuclear war in the event of a “conventional weapon attack against the Russian Federation when the basic life of the state is challenged.”