LONDON (Reuters) -Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday that any weapons in Moscow’s arsenal, including strategic nuclear weapons, could be used to defend territories incorporated in Russia from Ukraine. Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, said that referendums being organised by Russian-installed and separatist authorities in large swathes of Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory will take place, and that “there is no going back”:
“The Donbas (Donetsk and Luhansk) republics and other territories will be accepted into Russia.” Medvedev said the protection of all the territories would be significantly strengthened by the Russian armed forces, adding:
“Russia has announced that not only mobilisation capabilities, but also any Russian weapons, including strategic nuclear weapons and weapons based on new principles, could be used for such protection.” The referendums due to take place in the Russian-held parts of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia provinces, as well as part of Mykolaiv province, from Friday are widely expected to produce results overwhelmingly endorsing joining Russia. The votes, being organised at a few days’ notice under military occupation, have been labelled shams by Kyiv and its Western allies. If formally admitted to the Russian Federation, the occupied territories, where Ukrainian counteroffensives have gathered pace in recent weeks, will under Moscow’s nuclear doctrine be entitled to protection from Russian nuclear weapons. Moscow does not fully control any of the four regions it is expected to try to annex, with only around 60% of Donetsk and 66% of Zaporizhzhia regions held by the Russian army. Medvedev has regularly issued aggressive statements on the West and Ukraine in recent months, underlining his transformation from apparently Western-minded liberaliser as president from 2008-2012 to strident geopolitical hawk. NN: My analysis is that Putin will use tactic nuclear weapons. He has and I believe correctly analyzed present American leadership as cowards. The US turned tail and running out of Afghanistan was Putin’s first clue. He rightly assessed that America was weak and would not engage him with boots on the ground no matter what he did. Putin’s assessment of Europe was the same. He attacked Ukraine and as the Kremlin annalists calculated Europe and US would not commit troops not even NATO forces for training. Putin’s new assessment is that can even use nukes without little more then toothless sanctions that India and China are only to happy to ignore. It is a very dangerous time… Its a big problem if a situation is created where the Ukrainians take the fight to the Russia mainland. So now you understand why Russia will use tactical nuclear weapons.