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The Kremlin has doubled down on the threat made by Vladimir Putin’s close ally Dmitry Medvedev, who said Russia’s battlefield defeat in Ukraine could trigger a nuclear war with the West.
Following up on his warning on Thursday, Moscow confirmed that his inflammatory comments were in full accordance with Russia’s nuclear doctrine.
The former Russian president appeared to be warning NATO leaders to halt the supply of major new weapons to Kyiv as Western allies met at Germany’s Ramstein airbase on Friday with the focus on whether Berlin will allow its main battle tanks. Leopard 2 are delivered to Kyiv. to help drive out the Russian forces.
‘Tomorrow at the Ramstein base in [Germany]top military leaders will discuss new tactics and strategies as well as deliveries of new heavy weapons and attack systems to Ukraine,” Medvedev said.
Vladimir Putin’s ally Dmitry Medvedev has threatened the West with nuclear war where Ukraine defeats Russia on the battlefield. Pictured: A Sartmat ICBM test seen on Russian images (file)
The former Russian president, now vice president of the Russian Security Council (in the center of the photo on January 10 inspecting a military repair plant in St. Petersburg) appeared to be warning NATO leaders to stop the supply of major new weapons. to Kyiv.
‘And this is right after the Davos Forum, where the underdeveloped [Western] political partygoers repeat like a mantra: “To achieve peace, Russia must lose.”‘
If Russia loses, it would unleash a nuclear war, said Medvedev, who as Russian president from 2008 to 2012 once had his finger on the Kremlin’s nuclear trigger.
He strongly hinted that the fate of his boss Putin, and that of Russia, depends on the Russian despot not being defeated in the bloody war he launched 11 months ago.
It does not occur to any of the wretches to draw the following elementary conclusion: That the loss of a nuclear power in a conventional war could provoke a nuclear war.
‘The nuclear powers have not lost major conflicts on which their fate depends. And this should be obvious to anyone.
Even a western politician with some trace of intelligence.
Medvedev is now deputy head of Russia’s security council, which is led by Putin.
He stepped into Putin’s shoes as president in 2008 for a four-year term, while Putin became Russia’s prime minister at the time. The move was seen as largely symbolic, with Putin retaining supreme power.
When he first became president in 2008, he vowed to modernize and liberalize Russia, often speaking of his love of tech gadgets and blogging.
But he has since rebooted his political persona and now frequently embarks on Telegram about Russia’s place in the world and against the West.
Observers have called his new persona a desperate attempt to remain relevant in Moscow political circles, which have grown significantly darker since he left office and Putin regained the top Kremlin job.
In the meantime, there have been rumors about Medvedev’s increased alcohol consumptionwith Putin telling him to resign as prime minister, instead giving him the token job as vice president of Russia’s Security Council, over which, as with many other political organizations in Moscow, Putin has ultimate control.
Now some analysts see Medvedev positioning himself for a new run as Kremlin president if Putin is ousted due to ill health or dissatisfaction.
Medvedev recently threatened to jail the heads of Russian arms manufacturers who failed to deliver missiles and tanks in time for the war in Ukraine.
Ukraine has asked for modern Western weapons, especially heavy battle tanks, so it can regain momentum after some battlefield successes in the second half of 2022 against Russian forces that invaded last February. Pictured: A Ukrainian tank crew is seen operating a Soviet-era T-72 in the Donetsk region of Ukraine on January 18.
Ukrainian tankers perform maintenance on their tanks on the Donbass front as military mobility within the Russo-Ukrainian war continues on January 18, 2023.
His anger highlighted desperation in the Kremlin to bring more weapons to the front lines as the West ramps up its battlefield aid to Ukraine, especially with the arrival of heavy tanks from NATO nations.
While inspecting the 61st Armored Car Repair Plant in St. Petersburg, he warned: “The tasks here are obvious and must be dealt with promptly, in no way allowing disruption of the approved deadlines.”
He criticized failures to supply military equipment on time. ‘In the case of repeated offences, let me remind you that a special criminal punishment has been introduced [under] the Russian penal code,’ he said, referring to the ten-year prison sentences.
On Thursday, Ukraine urged its Western allies, without threats like Medvedev’s, to hurry up and supply Kyiv with tanks and air defenses, saying it was paying with Ukrainian lives on the front lines for slow discussions in foreign capitals.
Ukraine has asked for modern Western weapons, especially heavy battle tanks, so it can regain momentum after some battlefield successes in the second half of 2022 against Russian forces that invaded last February.
“We don’t have time, the world doesn’t have this time,” Andriy Yermak, head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, said on the Telegram messaging app.
The Western allies will meet on Friday at the German Ramstein airbase.
‘The question of tanks for Ukraine must be closed as soon as possible. As are the issues of additional air defense systems,” Yermak said in a statement. We are paying for slowness with the lives of our Ukrainian people.
‘It shouldn’t be like this,’ he said.
Pictured: A relative looks at the crash site of a helicopter, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in the city of Brovary, outside Kyiv, Ukraine, on January 19, 2023.
His comments echoed a call made by President Volodymyr Zelensky in a video address to the World Economic Forum on Wednesday. Zelenskiy said tanks and air defense units should be delivered faster than Russia could carry out its next strikes.
This week Britain increased the pressure on Germany by becoming the first Western country to send Western tanks, promising Challenger 2 heavy tanks.
Nearly 11 months since Russia invaded its neighbor, Moscow’s forces control swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine. The battlefield momentum has been with Kyiv for months, but Moscow has expended huge resources trying to push east.
The Leopard tanks are in the hands of a number of NATO nations, but transferring them to Ukraine requires German approval.
Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said that Kyiv has called on nations that have Leopard 2 tanks (Greece, Denmark, Spain, Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Turkey, Finland and Sweden ) to supply them.
But Berlin has veto power over any decision to export its tanks, deployed by NATO-allied armies across Europe and considered by experts to be best suited for Ukraine.
Several times in recent days, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has stressed, behind closed doors, the condition that US tanks must also be sent to Ukraine, the German government source said on condition of anonymity.
When asked about Germany’s position, US President Joe Biden’s spokeswoman, Karine Jean-Pierre, said: “The president believes that each country should make its own sovereign decisions about what security assistance steps and what type of equipment can provide Ukraine”.
NATO allies have tried to avoid the risk of appearing to be directly confronting Russia and have refrained from sending their most powerful weapons to Ukraine.