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By Maya Mehrara and Hugh Cameron
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An ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin's has issued a nuclear warning to the US in a post on Telegram amid increasing tensions between the two countries.
Dmitry Medvedev, the Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia and former Russian president, criticized discussions around transferring nuclear weapons from the U.S. to Ukraine.
"We are not planning to equip Ukraine with nuclear weapons," the White House told Newsweek, when contacted for a response to these reports and Medvedev's comments.
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In his post on Telegram, Medvedev wrote: "American politicians and journalists are seriously discussing the consequences of transferring nuclear weapons to Kyiv. It seems that my sad joke about crazy, senile Biden, who decided to leave this life gracefully, taking a significant part of humanity with him, is turning into a frightening reality."
"Give nuclear weapons to a country at war with the largest nuclear power? The idea is so absurd that it raises suspicions about a paranoid psychosis in Joe The Walking Dead and all those who would advise such a move."
He continued, "Yet I must comment on the nonsense: 1) The very threat of transferring nuclear weapons to the Kyiv regime can be considered preparation for nuclear conflict with Russia;
2) The actual transfer of such weapons can be equated to an act of attack on our country under article 19 of the Fundamentals of State Policy in the Field of Nuclear Deterrence.
The consequences are obvious."
Newsweek reached out to the Russian government for comment via email.
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According to article 19 of the Basic Principles of State Policy of the Russian Federation on Nuclear Deterrence, which Medvedev referred to, as of 2020, the "conditions specifying the possibility of nuclear weapons use by the Russian Federation" include the "arrival of reliable data on a launch of ballistic missiles attacking the territory of the Russian Federation and/or its allies.
It continues: "[...] use of nuclear weapons or other types of weapons of mass destruction by an adversary against the Russian Federation and/or its allies; attack by adversary against critical governmental or military sites of the Russian Federation, disruption of which would undermine nuclear forces response actions; aggression against the Russian Federation with the use of conventional weapons when the very existence of the state is in jeopardy."
Russian president Vladimir Putin recently signed an updated nuclear doctrine into law and the new law emphasizes that Russia will make "all necessary efforts to reduce the nuclear threat" and aims to prevent escalating tensions between states that could lead to "military conflicts, including nuclear ones."
It also says that nuclear deterrence should also ensure "an understanding by a potential adversary of the inevitability of retaliation in the event of aggression against the Russian Federation and (or) its allies."
Medvedev has previously served as Russia's president and prime minister.
He recently commented on the range of Russia's new hypersonic ballistic missile, Oreshnik, used in the recent attack on Ukraine's Dnipro and wrote on Telegram: "Europe is wondering what damage the system can cause if the heads are nuclear, whether it is possible to shoot down these missiles and how quickly the missiles will reach the capitals of the Old World.
"The answer: the damage is unacceptable, it is impossible to shoot down with modern means and we are talking about minutes."
He added: "Bomb shelters will not help. So the only hope is that kind Russia will warn about launches in advance. Therefore, it is better to stop supporting the war."
Medvedev also criticized President Joe Biden's authorization of Ukraine to use long-range weapons to conduct deep strikes into Russian territory, which began last week and have continued escalating as both countries retaliate against one another.
He said that Ukraine's use of US-made ATACMS in an attack in Bryansk last week has led to what "can now be qualified as an attack by the bloc's countries on Russia," and that "in this case, the right arises to launch a retaliatory strike with weapons of mass destruction against Kyiv and the main NATO facilities, wherever they are. And this is already WWIII."
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Amid the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine faced pressure both domestically and internationally to surrender the strategic nuclear warheads and tactical nuclear weapons it had on its territory, which numbered up to 6,100 at the time, according to the Nuclear Threat Initiative.
In 1994, Ukraine assented to these demands, signing the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances. Through this treaty, Ukraine completed the transfer of its entire nuclear arsenal to Russia by mid-1996 in return for assurances that its newfound sovereignty and territorial integrity would be respected by the Russian Federation.
While Ukraine makes significant use of nuclear energy to this day, as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty it has not attempted to procure nuclear weapons.
However, the onset of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022 sparked some regret from many world leaders over Ukraine's decision to relinquish this arsenal. In April 2023, former President Bill Clinton, who as U.S. president helped orchestrate the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, told Irish outlet RTE that Russia might have opted against the invasion if Ukraine still possessed a nuclear deterrent.
"I feel a personal stake because I got them to agree to give up their nuclear weapons," Clinton said. "And none of them believe that Russia would have pulled this stunt if Ukraine still had their weapons."
In mid-October this year, during a speech in Brussels, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that he had told President Trump, during their September meeting, of the need for Ukraine to develop a nuclear weapon to deter Russian aggression.
"Either Ukraine will have nuclear weapons and that will be our protection or we should have some sort of alliance," Zelensky said he told Trump. "Apart from NATO, today we do not know any effective alliances."
Zelensky rowed back on these comments later that same day, during a press conference with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
"We never spoke about that we are preparing to create [a] nuclear weapon or something like this," the Ukrainian president said, clarifying that his comments were rather an expression of regret at the failures of the Budapest Memorandum.
Update 11/26/24 1:304 p.m. ET: This article was updated to include a response from the White House.
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