- Dmitri Medvedev does it again, threatening Western leaders with nuclear attacks if they cross a line.
- Medvedev says no leader in Washington, Paris and London “will be able to hide” if he sends troops to Ukraine.
- The former Russian president regularly makes grandiose threats against the West.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Monday threatened nuclear strikes against Western leaders who wish to send their troops to Ukraine, doubling down on his increasingly hostile rhetoric towards the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
“The chorus of irresponsible bastards among Western elites who are calling to send their troops to a country that does not exist is growing,” Medvedev said. wrote in a message on social networks.
He pointed the finger at leaders and politicians from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, the Baltics and Poland who floated the idea of supplying troops to kyiv.
Medvedev said any deployment of NATO troops would essentially be a direct engagement in a war and that Russia would have to respond “outside Ukraine’s borders.”
“In this case, none of them will be able to hide either in the Capitol, nor in the Elysée, nor in 10 Downing Street. It would be a global catastrophe,” Medvedev added.
The former president, who served in the role from 2008 to 2012, cited retaliation as the reason Russia recently began holding exercises on “the use of non-strategic nuclear weapons.”
Russia announced tactical nuclear attack exercises near Ukraine on Monday, which it said were taking place in response to recent “threats” from the West.
Strategic nuclear weapons are those typically launched via intercontinental ballistic missiles. The type mentioned by Medvedev generally offers lower yields – although they can still be devastating – and can be delivered by various means such as shorter-range missiles or even trucks.
Russia uses threats of nuclear war to position itself against countries supporting Ukraine, with repeated references to non-strategic nuclear weapons potentially being used if certain red lines set by Moscow are crossed.
Western countries “must understand that we also have weapons capable of hitting targets on their territory,” Russian leader Vladimir Putin said in March.
But such threats have also been called a bluff by Western leaders, who say the Kremlin hopes to scare off Ukraine’s allies.
Meanwhile, NATO continued to provide Ukraine with approximately $168 billion in weapons and other aid. Last month, the United States approved a $61 billion package for kyiv, which Ukraine says is vital to maintaining its defensive positions against the Russian advance.
As for Medvedev, the former president has been staunchly pro-war since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He regularly takes to social media to call for extreme measures in response to perceived Western grievances, such as a hypersonic missile strike on The Hague after an arrest warrant was issued for Putin.
In April, he said every NATO soldier sent to Ukraine should receive a “maximum reward” on their heads.
NATO has said it will not deploy its own troops to Ukraine and is not seriously considering doing so, although some allied leaders say they are open to such a possibility.
French President Emmanuel Macron, for example, has repeatedly said he would not rule out sending troops to help kyiv. Medvedev often responds directly to Macron, insulting him on social media in English, Russian and French.
Experts on Russian politics previously told Business Insider’s Sinead Baker that Medvedev’s hostile rhetoric could be an attempt to impress Putin.
“Medvedev is like one of the weakest men in Tony Soprano’s circles, who just has to do horrible things to appease the boss,” said Edward Lucas, a senior adviser at the Center for Analysis of European politics.
Medvedev is now vice-president of the Russian Security Council.
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