Top Putin Ally Warns the West: Russia’s Nuke Threats Are Not a Bluff – The Daily Beast

A former Russian president on Friday warned that Moscow is not bluffing about its willingness to use tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine and said Kyivs international backers are making a fatal mistake if they think otherwise.

Dmitry Medvedev, an ally of Vladimir Putin and the deputy chairman of Russias Security Council, made the menacing remarks in reaction to reports that Western countriesincluding the U.S.have given Ukraine permission to use their supplied weapons to strike targets inside Russia. The current military conflict with the West is developing according to the worst possible scenario, Medvedev wrote on Telegram.

Russia regards all long-range weapons used by Ukraine as already being directly controlled by servicemen from NATO countries, Medvedev wrote. He claimed that such activity does not constitute military assistance to Ukraine, but rather active participation in a war against us.

Medvedev claimed such actions could well become a casus belli, meaning an action which provokes war.

He went on to claim that NATO countries who control Ukraines long-range weapons or send a contingent of troops to support Kyiv would be committing a serious escalation of the conflict.

Ukraine and its NATO allies will receive a response of such destructive force that the Alliance itself simply will not be able to resist being drawn into the conflict, he said.

Medvedev also said retired NATO farts who claim that Russia would never use a tactical nuclear weaponbombs designed for use on the battlefield which have typically lower yields than strategic nukeshad previously miscalculated by asserting that Russia would not enter into an open military conflict with Ukraine.

A similar error of judgment could also be happening about Russias readiness to use a tactical nuke, Medvedev said. This, he claims, would be a fatal mistake.

After all, as the President of Russia rightly noted, European countries have a very high population density, Medvedev said, referring to Putins threats earlier this week amid reports that European nations would allow Kyiv to attack Russian territory with weapons theyd supplied.

Medvedev said there is also a potential for Russia to strike hostile countries with strategic weapons. This is, alas, neither intimidation nor bluffing, he said.

There is a constant escalation when it comes to the firepower of NATO weapons being used, Medvedev added. Therefore, nobody today can rule out the conflicts transition to its final stage.

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Top Putin Ally Warns the West: Russia's Nuke Threats Are Not a Bluff - The Daily Beast