Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin ally threatens Nato with nuclear strikes in wild speech

Russia could strike Nato with nuclear weapons, a key Putin ally warned, as he hit out at Sweden and Finland joining the bloc.

Dmitry Medvedev, former Russian prime minister and security council deputy, said the two Scandinavian countries have “automatically become targets for our armed forces.”

"They are part of a bloc hostile to us which means they automatically became a target for our armed forces, including retaliatory strikes and even the nuclear component or preventive measures,” he said.

It comes after a major Russian drone attack on Ukraine killed a 12-year-old child this morning and wounded three others just hours after Russian president Vladimir Putin announced a fresh 72-hour ceasefire next weekend.

Ukraine war latest: Putin ally threatens Nato with nuclear strikes in wild speech

Former Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev warned Sweden and Finland could be targeted in Russian nuclear strike

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Margery]

Medvedev is Putin's favourite mouth piece when he wants to say something severe to the west without diplomatic repercussions.

That means Putin is trying to send a message to the West. That might be just feeling grumpy at Sweden and Finland becoming part of NATO- but that was a while back now so it might be best to look at more recent irritations.

The drone attack doesn't meet the criteria, those happen all the time and sadly there are civilian body counts on both sides.

Maybe it's leverage at the peace deal that Trump is trying to broker.

Or the meeting at the Vatican for the Pope's funeral that had Trump and Zelenski plastered all over the news feeds. I haven't caught up to what they said or did, but the optics of that meeting might irritate His Gogliness.

Or it could also be something I haven't caught up to yet that Konstantin of Inside Russia was driving it in a couple of his headlines. Some important general got eliminated by Putin's death squads.

I think the one thing I did hear Konstantin say was that general contradicted a much bigger general (I forget the names but it was eyebrow raising) at some important meeting. Both of them involved in the special operation in Ukraine aka the Russian invasion. Basically a behind the scenes power struggle at the Kremlin between rival generals. That happens.

 

[Spartan Sprinter]

Medvedev is Putin's favourite mouth piece when he wants to say something severe to the west without diplomatic repercussions.

That means Putin is trying to send a message to the West. That might be just feeling grumpy at Sweden and Finland becoming part of NATO- but that was a while back now so it might be best to look at more recent irritations.

The drone attack doesn't meet the criteria, those happen all the time and sadly there are civilian body counts on both sides.

Maybe it's leverage at the peace deal that Trump is trying to broker.

Or the meeting at the Vatican for the Pope's funeral that had Trump and Zelenski plastered all over the news feeds. I haven't caught up to what they said or did, but the optics of that meeting might irritate His Gogliness.

Or it could also be something I haven't caught up to yet that Konstantin of Inside Russia was driving it in a couple of his headlines. Some important general got eliminated by Putin's death squads.

I think the one thing I did hear Konstantin say was that general contradicted a much bigger general (I forget the names but it was eyebrow raising) at some important meeting. Both of them involved in the special operation in Ukraine aka the Russian invasion. Basically a behind the scenes power struggle at the Kremlin between rival generals. That happens.

I think it might be the pope funeral meeting that might have sparked him to fire off that threat

 

[Margery]

I think it might be the pope funeral meeting that might have sparked him to fire off that threat

Yeah, that fits right, I think. Especially if the timing was right after that. So much happened last week.