Russians Ready for ‘Direct Conflict’ with NATO, Putin Ally Claims

Russia may be prepared to engage in direct conflict with NATO member states, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev suggested on Tuesday.

In a post on his Telegram channel, Medvedev, who is deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, criticized the supply of weapons to Ukraine by its Western allies, suggesting a war could break out over deliveries of Abrams tanks and the potential supply of long-range missiles to Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that the first U.S.-made Abrams tanks have arrived in Ukraine. Washington has pledged to provide Kyiv with 31 of the vehicles. The Kremlin has repeatedly accused NATO allies of becoming involved in the conflict by sending Ukraine weapons, providing its troops with training, and assisting with military intelligence.

“It seems that Russia is being left with less and less choice but direct conflict with NATO,” wrote Medvedev.

NATO has “turned into an openly fascist bloc,” said Medvedev, accusing the military alliance of being like Nazi Germany and the Axis powers—a coalition headed by Germany, Italy and Japan—in World War II, “albeit larger.”

“We are ready, although the result will be achieved at a much greater cost to humanity than in 1945,” Medvedev warned.

Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs, said the former Russian president is “threatening the whole of humanity.” These threats prove “these weapons will be highly effective on the battlefield,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Newsweek has contacted Russia’s foreign ministry via email for comment.

It’s not the first time Medvedev has insinuated that Russia could attack NATO members for providing Ukraine with assistance. He said in December 2022 that such countries could be “legitimate military targets.”

“Today…the main question is whether the hybrid war de facto declared on our country by NATO can be considered to be the alliance’s entry into war with Russia? Is it possible to view the delivery of a large volume of weapons to Ukraine as an attack on Russia?” he wrote at the time.

“The leaders of NATO countries keep unanimously squawking that their countries and the entire bloc are not at war with Russia,” Medvedev continued. “Yet, everyone is well aware that this is not the case.”

He noted that in light of this, the question arises whether NATO allies are legitimate military targets.

According to “the named rules of war,” he said, the armed forces of other countries “that have officially entered the war, which are allies of the enemy country, and the objects located on their territory,” are considered legitimate military targets.

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