Polish official says US told Russia it would strike Russian targets in Ukraine if Putin used nuclear weapons

• A Polish official said the United States had told Russia it would strike Russian targets in Ukraine if Putin used a nuclear weapon.

• Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said such U.S. strikes would lead to a “world war.”

• Putin has regularly made nuclear threats since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Poland’s foreign minister said the United States had told Russia it would strike Russian targets in Ukraine if Putin used nuclear weapons.

In an interview with the Guardian, Radosław Sikorski appeared to doubt Russian threats regarding the use of nuclear weapons, saying: “The Americans told the Russians that if you detonate a nuclear bomb, even if it doesn’t kill anyone, we we will reach all your targets. (positions) in Ukraine with conventional weapons, we will destroy them all. »

“I think it’s a credible threat,” he said. “In addition, the Chinese and Indians have read the anti-riot law to Russia. And this is not child’s play, because if this taboo were also to be violated, like that of not changing the borders by force, China knows that Japan and Korea would go nuclear and probably they don’t want that.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev responded to Sikorski’s comments in a post on X, formerly Twitter, saying U.S. strikes on Russian targets would result in a “world war.”

“The fact that the Americans achieve our goals means starting a world war, and a foreign minister even from a country like Poland should understand this,” Medvedev said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has constantly threatened to use nuclear weapons since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

In September of the same year, when Russia began partial mobilization of reservists for war — Putin raised the specter of nuclear conflict, adding that his warnings were “no bluff“.

In February this year, Putin made one of his most explicit threats after French President Emmanuel Macron suggested NATO troops could be sent to Ukraine.

Western nations “must understand that we also have weapons capable of hitting targets on their territory,” Putin said, adding: “All this really threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons and the destruction of civilization . “

In February, the Financial Times reported on the criteria that would lead Russia to consider a nuclear response, citing leaked documents.

The criteria included conditions such as the destruction of 20% of Russia’s strategic missile submarines or an enemy incursion into Russian territory, according to the FT.

In his interview with the Guardian, Sikorski also said Europe must learn to play the escalation game better by not fully revealing its hand to Putin.

“Always declaring what our own red line is only invites Moscow to adapt its hostile actions to our ever-changing self-imposed limits,” he said.

Read the original article on Business Insider