Vladimir Putin’s right-hand man has issued a chilling threat to NATO as the alliance continues to support Ukraine.
Dmitri Medvedev – Russia’s former president and Putin’s staunch ally – took to Telegram to threaten NATO following the delivery of US Abrams tanks to Ukraine
He said: “It seems that Russia is being left with less and less choice other than a direct conflict with NATO on the ground.”
The Russian leader then bizarrely compared NATO to Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime, “albeit larger”.
He cited the delivery of US M1A1 Abrams to Ukraine as a reason for potential conflict between Russia and NATO as well as the promise of ATACMS – a missile capable of hitting targets 190 miles away which is compatible with HIMARS.
Medvedev continued his threat appearing to reference nuclear weapons – something the Russian politician has done in the past.
He said: “We are ready, although the result will be achieved at [a] much greater cost to humanity than in 1945…”
In 1945, the Second World War ended – in Europe with the takeover of Nazi Germany by Allied forces and in Japan when the country surrendered after the US dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Medvedev seemed to be referring to nuclear war – which some see as the inevitable end to a conflict between NATO and Russia.
The comments come as Ukraine has increasingly targeted Russia further closer to home.
Not only have drone strikes regularly hit Moscow, Ukraine has launched an aggressive campaign of attacks on the occupied Crimean Peninsula.
Last week, at least one – video only shows the second strike – UK-Franco Storm Shadow missile slammed into the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea fleet.
Ukraine claimed that the attack killed 34 Russian officers and wounded more than 100 other soldiers. Kyiv also said the attack was planned to kill Russia’s military brass.
Although ATCAMS, which US President Joe Biden has promised Ukraine, have a shorter range than the plane-fired Storm Shadow missiles, they can be launched more quickly giving Kyiv more versatility to strike targets of opportunity.
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