He did not name the commanders or reveal further details of the alleged plan, and Ukraine did not immediately respond to his threat.

“What does this mean? It only means one thing: they risk getting caught paragraph 19 foundations of Russian state policy in the field of nuclear deterrence,” Medvedev wrote on the Telegram messaging application. “This must be remembered.”

Paragraph 19 of the 2020 Russian nuclear doctrine sets out the conditions under which the Russian president would consider using nuclear weapons: generally, response to attack using nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction, or the use of conventional weapons against Russia “when the very existence of the state is under threat”.

Medvedev specifically mentioned point “d” in paragraph 19, which deals with a nuclear response to a conventional attack.

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The president Vladimir Putin is the decision-maker when it comes to Russia’s vast nuclear arsenal, but diplomats say Medvedev’s views are an indicator militant thinking the Kremlin leadership, which presented the war as an existential struggle with the West.

Kremlin critics have dismissed some of Medvedev’s past nuclear threats as an attempt to attract attention or dissuade the West from supplying more weapons to Ukraine. The US and its allies have promised almost 250,000 million dollars for military and other assistance to Kyiv.

Russia and the United States are the largest nuclear powers in the world: Putin controls 5889 nuclear warheadswhile the American President, Joe Bidencontrols some 5244 nuclear warheadsThis was reported by the Federation of American Scientists.

Reuters