Senior Russian Official Reiterates Nuclear Threat, Warns of War if Ukraine Joins NATO
The head of NATO has been dismissive of such remarks, calling them ’reckless and dangerous’
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told Russian media that Ukraine’s accession to NATO would be tantamount to a declaration of war and that the Kremlin is prepared to use its vast nuclear arsenal if pushed too far.
NATO officials have in the past downplayed similar remarks by Russian officials, including ones by Mr. Medvedev, who is the deputy head of the Russian Security Council that controls Moscow’s “special military operation” in Ukraine.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has been mostly dismissive of Mr. Medvedev’s repeated nuclear threats, though he has criticized the Russian official’s rhetoric.
The NATO chief said that this message has been repeatedly communicated to Russia, that the alliance remains vigilant, and that Russia’s activities have been closely monitored for any changes to its nuclear posture.
In his remarks to Argumenty i Fakty, Mr. Medvedev contended that he believes those conditions will never be met, that a “defunct” Ukraine will ultimately never become a NATO member, and that it is “quite possible” that at some point, Ukraine won’t exist as an independent country.
Accusing NATO of seeking to “turn Ukraine into a means of destroying Russia,” Mr. Medvedev said that Russia does not pose a threat to the alliance and has no intention of attacking any of its members, and even less so does it want “to turn the inhabitants of its countries into fine radioactive dust.”
Besides issuing a tacit reminder about Russia’s vast nuclear arsenal, the Russian official warned that the more attempts there are by Ukraine and other countries that lie close to Russia to join the Western military alliance, “the harsher our responses will become.”
“Whether the entire planet will fly apart from this depends solely on the prudence of ’that’ side,” he said.
The Epoch Times has reached out to NATO’s press team with a request for comment about Mr. Medvedev’s remarks but received no response by publication.
NATO officials have repeatedly said that the military alliance, which was created after World War II as a bulwark against a Soviet invasion of Western Europe, is defensive in nature and poses no threat to Russia.
However, since the fall of the Soviet Union, NATO has expanded its membership eastward to include countries that Russia considers to be within its security buffer, drawing the Kremlin’s ire. One of Russia’s key demands to end hostilities in Ukraine is for Kyiv to pledge never to join NATO.
Mr. Medvedev was widely seen as a moderate when he was Russia’s president from 2008 to 2012, though he has become increasingly hardline since leaving office and becoming a key member of Russia’s Security Council.
For its part, NATO has generally avoided making references to its nuclear arsenal, perhaps wary of being seen as making escalatory moves. However, the NATO chief did say in mid-June that NATO is adapting its nuclear capabilities in response to current security threats, taking note of Russia’s latest nuclear drills and rhetoric.
“What we have seen over the last years and months is a dangerous nuclear rhetoric from the Russian side. … We also see some more exercises, nuclear exercises on the Russian side,” Mr. Stoltenberg told a press conference in Budapest, Hungary, on June 12.
The NATO chief said that the United States was modernizing its nuclear weapons in Europe and that the Netherlands, a member of the alliance, recently declared that some of its F-35 fighter jets were ready to carry nuclear weapons.