Russia will launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike if the West supplies Ukraine with nuclear weapons, Moscow warns

Russia will launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike if the West supplies Ukraine with nuclear weapons, one of Vladimir Putin’s closest associates said in a sinister warning.

Russia’s former president Dmitry Medvedev said the West does not understand Putin’s willingness to bring about a nuclear Armageddon.

A ranting Medvedev also warned that the war in Ukraine could last “decades”, with long periods of fighting interspersed with ceasefires.

Medvedev – now deputy head of Putin’s security council – warned that the war has escalated further as Ukraine receives fighter jets, such as US F-16s, and “perhaps even nuclear weapons.”

“There are some irreversible rules of war,” he said during a trip to Vietnam. ‘When it comes down to it [deliveries of] nuclear weapons [to Ukraine]a pre-emptive strike will have to be carried out.’

Russia’s former president Dmitry Medvedev (pictured in Vietnam on May 23) said the West does not understand Putin’s willingness to bring about a nuclear Armageddon.

The West still does not understand this and mistakenly believes that Putin will not pull the nuclear trigger, Medvedev said.

“It will mean that a missile with a nuclear warhead will fly at them,” he threatened.

Medvedev is the only other man alive – apart from Putin – who has kept his finger on the Russian nuclear button.

Putin is often seen with an official nearby apparently clutching his nuclear briefcase.

Meanwhile, Medvedev said the Kremlin feared “a man with dementia” would be elected to the White House, apparently referring to a second term for Joe Biden.

He said: ‘All that matters is that a man with dementia is not elected. But this is possible.’

For Russia, “historically it was always easier for us to work with the Republicans,” he said.

However, he said Republican favorite Donald Trump was “a nice guy, but a bit of a coward.”

A ranting Medvedev also warned that the war in Ukraine could last “decades”, with long periods of fighting interspersed with ceasefires. Pictured: Ukrainian soldiers on a tanker drive along the road to their positions near Bakhmut on Tuesday

Meanwhile, Medvedev said the conflict in Ukraine could last for decades with long periods of fighting.

“This conflict will last for a very long time, probably decades,” he said. “If only there is such a force [in Kyiv]there will be, say, three years of truce, two years of conflict, and everything will repeat itself.’

Therefore, “it is necessary to destroy the nature of Nazi power in Kiev,” he claimed.

Medvedev often makes harsh remarks and last month described the Ukrainian authorities as an infection.

The former president, despite Russian setbacks in the war and his prediction that it could drag on for years, pushed for Ukraine to collapse.

“It will depend on how the process of disintegrating this moribund state will proceed as a result of a lost military conflict,” he said.

Either it will be a way of relatively slowly eroding Ukrainian sovereignty with a gradual loss of the remaining elements of state sovereignty.

“Or instant collapse with simultaneous destruction of all the features of the state.”

Medvedev served as Russia’s president from 2008 to 2012 and was the country’s longest-serving prime minister since the collapse of communism.