Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former president and vice-president of the Security Council, has said that Moscow could strike at an enemy using only conventional weapons, with Russian Defense Minister Vladimir Putin arguing that nuclear “readiness” was a priority. Saturday’s comments prompted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a video appearance at the Doha Forum in Qatar to warn that Moscow is an imminent threat to the world. “Russia is thinking of boasting that it can destroy with nuclear weapons, not just one country but the whole planet,” Zelensky said. Putin introduced the nuclear threat at the beginning of the war, warning that Western intervention would bear “consequences you have never seen.” Western officials say the threats may be merely an attempt to divert attention from the failure of Putin’s forces to secure a speedy occupation of the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, and to move to other key areas of the country. An adviser to Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, Markian Lubkivskyi, said on Saturday that Russia would soon lose control of the southern city of Kherson, the first major center to fall to the Kremlin since the start of the war on February 24. He said: “I believe that today the city will be fully under the control of the Ukrainian armed forces. “We have completed the last two days of operations in the Kiev region, so the other armed forces are now concentrating on the southern part, trying to liberate Kherson and some other cities in Ukraine.” Russia has about 6,000 nuclear warheads – the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world. In an interview Saturday, Medvedev said Russia’s nuclear doctrine did not require a hostile state to use such weapons first. He said: “We have a special document on nuclear deterrence. This document clearly indicates the reasons why the Russian Federation is entitled to use nuclear weapons. There are some of them, let me remind you: “Number one is the situation when Russia is hit by a nuclear missile. The second case is any use of other nuclear weapons against Russia or its allies. “The third is an attack on a critical infrastructure that will have paralyzed our nuclear deterrents. “And the fourth case is when there is an act of aggression against Russia and its allies, which endangered the very existence of the country itself, even without the use of nuclear weapons, that is, with the use of conventional weapons.” Medvedev added that “there is a determination to defend the independence, the sovereignty of our country, not to give any reason to doubt even the slightest doubt that we are ready to give a worthy response to any violation of our country, its independence.” Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who did not appear for 12 days before a brief appearance on Friday and a speech to his generals on Saturday, also spoke about the nuclear threat contained in Russia’s arsenal. In a video posted on social media by the Russian Ministry of Defense, Shoigu said he had discussed with the Ministry of Finance issues related to the military budget and defense orders. He said: “We continue to deliver weapons and equipment in advance through credit. “The priorities are long-range, high-precision weapons, aircraft equipment and maintaining the readiness of the strategic nuclear forces.”
