Outspoken former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, close to Vladimir Putin, has warned NATO that Russia’s defeat in Ukraine could trigger a nuclear war. In a post on his messaging app Telegram, Medvedev, deputy chairman of Putin’s powerful Security Council, said, “The defeat of the nuclear-armed states in a conventional war could trigger a nuclear war.”
Russia has 5,977 nuclear warheads while the United States has 5,428, China 350, France 290, and the United Kingdom 225, according to the Federation of American Scientists. As president, Putin is Russia’s ultimate decision-maker on the use of nuclear weapons. Washington has not detailed what it would do if Putin ordered what would be the first use of nuclear weapons in war since the United States unleashed the first atomic bomb attacks on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. While NATO has conventional military superiority over Russia, when it comes to nuclear weapons, Russia has nuclear superiority over the alliance in Europe.
The United States and its allies have denounced the invasion of Ukraine as an imperial land grab, but Ukraine has vowed to fight until the last Russian soldier leaves its territory. Since his dismal New Year’s Eve message calling out Western Russia’s real enemy in the war with Ukraine. Putin has repeatedly signaled that Russia will not back down. He deployed hypersonic missiles in the Atlantic and appointed his top general to direct the Russian war effort. Putin said Wednesday that Russia’s powerful military-industrial complex is ramping up production, which is one of the main reasons his country is winning in Ukraine.
