Moscow would launch nuclear weapons at Washington and other Western capitals if compelled to relinquish Ukrainian territory it has annexed, Dmitry Medvedev, a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, cautioned in a report by the Daily Mail on Sunday.
“Attempts to return Russia to the borders of 1991 [when the Soviet Union collapsed] will lead to only one thing: towards a global war with Western countries using the entire strategic arsenal of our state — in Kyiv [Ukraine], Berlin, London, Washington,” asserted Medvedev, who serves as deputy head of the Russian security council, responsible for directing the war against Ukraine.
He stressed that the response is “obvious” if Russia is questioned about its resolve “if the disappearance of a thousand-year-old country, our great Motherland, is at stake, and the sacrifices made by the people of Russia over the centuries will be in vain.”
Medvedev underlined that “the West should not think that in such a scenario the leadership of Russia will ‘tremble in its hand’ in pushing the nuclear button.”
Formerly Russia’s president from 2008 to 2012, Medvedev emphasized that “it’s better to return everything [to us] before it’s too late. Or we will return it ourselves with maximum losses for the enemy.”
He also criticized “snotty Anglo-American fosterlings” opposing Putin’s governance, labeling British and German defense ministers Grant Shapps and Boris Pistorius as “a**holes” who believe the world cannot afford for Russia to defeat Ukraine.
Medvedev cautioned that if Shapps and Pistorius had their way, there would be a “direct and irreversible collapse of present-day Russia,” including the territories in Ukraine that the Kremlin has seized.
