Senior Moscow Officials Remind Nuclear Weapons Response If Ukraine Attacks Russian Missile Launch Site

Dmitry Medvedev. (Twitter/@MedvedevRussiaE)

JAKARTA - Senior official and ally of President Vladimir Putin on Thursday warned that any Ukrainian attack on Russia's missile launch site with weapons supplied by the United States and its allies risks raising a nuclear response from Moscow.

Former President Dmitry Medvedev, who now serves as Deputy Chairman of the Security Council, said several Ukrainian military commanders were considering attacking Russian missile launch sites with long-range missiles supplied by the West.

He did not name the commanders or disclose further details regarding the alleged plan, and there was no immediate reaction from Ukraine to the threat.

"What does this mean? This means only one thing, they are at risk of violating paragraph 19 on the basis of Russia's state policy in the field of nuclear prevention," Medvedev wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

"This must be remembered," said Medvedev.

It is known, paragraph nineteen of Russia's 2020 nuclear doctrine establishes conditions under which a Russian president will consider the use of nuclear weapons, in general in response to attacks that use nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction, or against the use of conventional weapons against Russia "when the country's existence is under threat."

Dmitry Medvedev specifically mentioned the "G" paragraph nineteen points that discussed the nuclear response to conventional weapons attacks.

Medvedev called himself a liberal modernist when he became president for the 2008-2012 period. However, he now presents himself as one of the anti-Western hardline figures in the Kremlin.

Although President Vladimir Putin is a decision maker regarding Russia's extensive nuclear arsenal, diplomats say Medvedev's views indicate aggressive thinking among Kremlin officials, which considers the war an existential struggle against the West.

Kremlin critics have ignored some of Medvedev's nuclear threats in the past, in an attempt to attract attention or deter the West from supplying more weapons to Ukraine. The United States and its allies have pledged nearly $250 billion in military aid and other support to Kyiv.

It is known that the risk of nuclear escalation has overshadowed Ukraine's war since Russia sent thousands of troops to its neighboring country in February 2022.

Russia and the United States are by far the largest nuclear power in the world. President Putin controlled 5,889 nuclear warheads, while US President Joe Biden controlled about 5,244 nuclear warheads, according to the American Federation of Scientists.