‘Nuclear apocalypse’ more likely if the West continues to supply Ukraine with increasingly powerful weapons, Putin crony warns
- Former president warns sending support to Ukraine risks nuclear apocalypse
- Comes after Biden promises to back an effort to train F-16 pilots in Ukraine
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday that if Ukraine continues to receive increasingly dangerous weapons from Western backers, the risk of ‘nuclear apocalypse’ will also rise, state-owned news agency RIA reported.
Medvedev’s comments come as US president Joe Biden said he would back a joint effort to train Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 fighter jets, prompting Russian deputy foreign minister Alexander Grushko to declare ‘escalation… involves colossal risks’ for the west, according to state-owned outlet Tass.
However, Biden is opposed to sending US jets directly to Ukraine amid concerns it could trigger retaliatory action from Russia.
Russia has repeatedly used its massive nuclear arsenal as leverage to try to deter western backers from supporting Ukraine. In March, Disarmament Affairs chief Izumi Nakamitsu warned the risk of nuclear weapons use was higher than at any time since the Cold War.
Medvedev (left) sits with Li Hui, China’s special representative for Eurasian affairs, during a conference in Moscow to mark the start of the construction of Chinese section of the Power of Siberia gas pipeline, on June 29 2015
A missile launch overnight on 11-12 April 2023. The new ICBM launch came only weeks after Russia suspended its participation in its last remaining nuclear arms control pact with the US
Medvedev was also asked about the Russian fighters who have joined partisan groups, this week staging incursions into the border Belgorod region of Russia.
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Medvedev – now deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council – said Ukraine’s denial of involvement was ‘lies’.
He said: ‘Responsibility for [the attacks] is with Kyiv… and eventually its sponsors – Washington, countries of the European Union, and with other countries that joined them like Great Britain.’
He added: ‘As for these scum – I can’t find another name for them – the question is what to do with them. They have to be destroyed like rats, and not even taken captive.’
Medvedev appeared to be referring to the fighters in Belgorod with his last comments.
Russia has stepped up its displays of force in recent months as funding and munitions have been funneled through to Ukraine from the west.
In April, video caught the moment a ‘new intercontinental ballistic missile’ was tested at the Kapustin Yar test site in Astrakhan region.
Full details of the mysterious ‘advanced’ rocket were not initially released but experts believed it to be a powerful Topol-ME system.
The launch came only weeks after Russia suspended its participation in its last remaining nuclear arms control pact with the US, dubbed New START.
The treaty had seen the US and Russia agree to limit its nuclear stockpiles and had been extended to run through February 4 2026.
But in February, Putin decided to end the formal arms control treaty, drawing condemnation from NATO and raising fears that when the treaty expires it could lead to a nuclear arms race.
U.S. Air Force F16s on joint air force exercises at Clark Air Base on May 9, 2023 in the Philippines. Biden recently promised to help train Ukrainian forces in the use of the jets
Vladimir Putin with Deputy Chairman of Security Council Dmitry Medvedev, April 2008
Medvedev pinned the responsibility for anti-Kremlin Russian volunteers attacking Belgorod
He blamed Washington, the EU and ‘other countries’ like Britain for the attacks into Russia
Medvedev urged for harsh retaliation against those who had made an incursion into Belgorod
Separately, fears of catastrophe were raised Monday when Ukraine’s occupied nuclear power station in Zaporizhzhia was knocked offline for a seventh time.
Ukraine’s largest power station has been caught in intense clashes since its occupation at the start of the war, provoking fears of a Chernobyl-type disaster.
While a power plant uses nuclear fission to generate electricity, it cannot explode like an atom bomb.
But the station was forced to rely on diesel generators, which have enough fuel reserves to last ten days and are needed to cool reactor fuel and prevent nuclear meltdown.
Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said in April the situation around the plant is ‘becoming increasingly unpredictable and potentially dangerous’, warning of the possibility of a ‘severe nuclear accident’.
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