Tensions are heating up.
Russia’s former President, Dmitry Medvedev, issued a stiff warning to the U.S. about Russia reserving its right to use nuclear force to defend itself following President Joe Biden’s speech in Poland after his surprise visit to Ukraine.
In a post on Telegram, Medvedev, who now is the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, asserted that it was “obvious to all reasonable forces that if the United States wants the defeat of Russia,” there could be a “world conflict.”
Medvedev added that if the U.S. wanted to defeat Russia, the Soviet nation had a “right to defend ourselves with any weapon, including nuclear.”
Medvedev was Russia’s President from 2008 to 2018 and its Prime Minister until 2020; his message on Telegram comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested earlier in the week that he might remove the nation from the New START arms treaty — a treaty limiting Russia’s ability to produce and launch nuclear weapons.
Biden, however, has rubbished assertions the U.S. and its European Allies want to destroy or control Russia, saying, “The West was not plotting to attack Russia, as Putin said today.”
He added that Russian citizens “who only want to live in peace with their neighbors” weren’t the enemy before placing the responsibility of ending the war on Russia, saying, “If Russia stopped invading Ukraine, it would end the war” before explaining that if Ukraine stopped fighting back, “it would be the end of Ukraine.”
Medvedev used Biden’s words, claiming that “If the [U.S] stops supplying weapons to the Kyiv regime, the war will end.”