"Morons" demanding a Russian defeat in Ukraine seem to be oblivious to the fact that such an outcome could result in a nuclear escalation, former President Dmitry Medvedev has argued.
Medvedev, who currently serves as deputy chair of the Russian Security Council, reiterated the warning ahead of a meeting on Friday of Ukraine’s military donors at the Ramstein US air base in Germany. He lashed out at Western politicians advocating a loss in the conflict for Russia as the only possible option in Ukraine.
“Not one of those morons is apparently willing to make the next logical step: a loss by a nuclear power in a conventional war may trigger the start of a nuclear war. Nuclear powers never lost a major conflict on which their fate depended,” he said on social media on Thursday.
The Prime Minister of Poland Mateusz Morawiecki is among those who support sending as many arms as possible to Kiev. He claimed this week that “the defeat of Ukraine may become a prelude to World War III, so today there is no reason to block support for Kiev and postpone matters indefinitely.”
A nuclear escalation was cited by some Western leaders, including US President Joe Biden, as a scenario they want to avoid by restricting their involvement in the Ukrainian conflict. They have also warned Moscow against deploying nuclear weapons in Ukraine, stating that this would be considered a major provocation.
The Russian military doctrine allows the use of such weapons of ultimate resort either in retaliation for an attack against Russia or its allies with weapons of mass destruction, or during a conventional conflict that puts the Russian statehood at significant risk.
Moscow considers the situation in Ukraine to be a proxy war waged against it by the US and its allies. Their goal is to hurt Russia as much as possible, which is why they are prolonging the hostilities by arming Kiev and forbidding it from pursuing a negotiated settlement, senior Russian officials have assessed.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that his government would not hesitate to use all means at its disposal.