MOSCOW (Reuters) – Senior Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday that if the West delivered nuclear weapons to Ukraine, Moscow could view such a transfer as an attack on Russia, triggering a nuclear response.
The New York Times reported last week that some unidentified Western officials had suggested that US President Joe Biden could give Ukraine nuclear weapons, although there were fears such a move would have serious consequences.
“American politicians and journalists are seriously discussing the consequences of transferring nuclear weapons to Kiev,” Medvedev, who served as Russia's president from 2008 to 2012, said on Telegram.
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Medvedev said that even the threat of such a transfer of nuclear weapons could be considered preparation for a nuclear war against Russia.
“The actual transfer of such weapons can be equated with the fait accompli of an attack on our country,” he said, according to Russia's recently updated nuclear doctrine.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Mark Trevelyan)
