Top Russian Official Reiterates Nuclear Threat, Says Ukraine Joining NATO Means War

Former Russian President and current Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev speaks to the Russian media at the Gorki state residence, outside Moscow on March 23, 2023. (Ekaterina Shtukina/Sputnik Pool Photo via AP)

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.

“From the very beginning, we have made it clear to NATO that Ukraine’s accession is not just a direct threat to Russia’s national interests. It is, in fact, a declaration of war, albeit with a delay,” Mr. Medvedev told the news outlet Argumenty i Fakty in an exclusive interview published on July 17, according to a translation of his remarks.

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, which controls Moscow’s “special military operation” in Ukraine.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has been mostly dismissive of Mr. Medvedev’s repeated nuclear threats, although he has criticized the Russian official’s rhetoric.

“The Russian nuclear rhetoric, also from Medvedev, is reckless and dangerous,” Mr. Stoltenberg told reporters in September 2023. “Russia must understand that the nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.”

The NATO chief said the message that the alliance remains vigilant, and that Russia’s activities have been closely monitored for any changes to its nuclear posture has been repeatedly communicated to Russia.

Mr. Medvedev’s latest warning was made after NATO leaders pledged at a recent summit to support Ukraine on an “irreversible path to full Euro-Atlantic integration, including NATO membership,” and reaffirm they will be in a position to extend a formal invitation to Ukraine to join NATO when members agree and the appropriate “conditions are met.”

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 doesn’t 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.

NATO’s press team didn’t respond by publication time to a request from The Epoch Times for comment about Mr. Medvedev’s remarks.

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.

While Mr. Medvedev was widely seen as a moderate when he was Russia’s president from 2008 to 2012, he has become increasingly hardline since leaving office and becoming a key member of Russia’s Security Council.

He is known for making hawkish statements, such as when he recently threatened nuclear strikes against Washington if the United States and its allies try to force Russia to give up its territorial gains in Ukraine.

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 news conference in Budapest, Hungary, on June 12.

The NATO chief said that the United States is 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.