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Putin ally Medvedev warns of nuclear war if Russia defeated in Ukraine
In a post on Telegram discussing NATO support for the Ukrainian military, Medvedev said: "Nuclear powers have never lost major conflicts on which their fate depends."
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United Russia Party chairman and deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev speaks during an interview at the Gorki residence, outside Moscow, on January 27, 2022.
(AFP/YULIA ZYRYANOVA / SPUTNIK )
F
ormer Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday "defeat of a nuclear power in a conventional war may trigger a nuclear war", referring to Russia's military campaign in Ukraine.
In a post on Telegram discussing NATO support for the Ukrainian military, Medvedev said: "Nuclear powers have never lost major conflicts on which their fate depends."
In December last year, Medvedev said Russia's nuclear arsenal and the rules Moscow has laid out for its use are the only factors preventing the West from starting a war against Russia.
Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, also said Moscow would pursue its war in Ukraine until the "disgusting, almost fascist regime" in Kyiv was removed and the country had been totally demilitarised.
Medvedev, who once cast himself as a liberal moderniser as president from 2008 to 2012, is one of the most hawkish proponents of the war. He regularly denounces the West, which he accuses of wanting to break Russia apart to benefit Ukraine.
"Is the West ready to unleash a fully-fledged war against us, including a nuclear war, at the hands of Kyiv?" he wrote in a 4,500-word article for the Rossiiskaya Gazeta newspaper.
"The only thing that stops our enemies today is the understanding that Russia will be guided by the fundamentals of state policy ... on nuclear deterrence. And in the event that a real threat arises, it will act on them."
