Putin ‘certainly not bluffing’ and will use nuclear weapons if pushed, says Medvedev

Russia has the right to defend itself if pushed and the threat of nuclear weapons is “is certainly not a bluff”, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has said.

Vladimir Putin warned last week that he would use “all the means at our disposal” to protect Russia. “It’s not a bluff,” he said, that Russia would use its weapons of mass destruction if its territory was threatened.

Now serving as deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, Mr Medvedev added that the US-led military alliance Nato would stay out of the conflict for fear of a “nuclear apocalypse”.

"Let’s imagine that Russia is forced to use the most fearsome weapon against the Ukrainian regime which had committed a large-scale act of aggression that is dangerous for the very existence of our state," he posted on Telegram.

"I believe that Nato would not directly interfere in the conflict even in this scenario," he said. "The demagogues across the ocean and in Europe are not going to die in a nuclear apocalypse."

According to Russia’s nuclear doctrine, the president can order the usage of nuclear weapons if the state faces an existential threat, including from conventional weapons.

"I have to remind you again - for those deaf ears who hear only themselves. Russia has the right to use nuclear weapons if necessary," said Mr Medvedev, adding that it would use it “in predetermined cases” while complying with the state policy.

The comments come as Russia prepares to annex large swathes of Ukrainian territory. Nearly four million people in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, are being asked to participate in referendums on joining Russia, which Ukraine and western nations dismissed as a “sham”.

None of the provinces is fully under Moscow’s control and fighting has been underway, with Ukrainian forces reporting more advances since they routed Russian troops in a fifth province, Kharkiv, earlier this month.

President Putin is likely to announce the annexation of occupied regions during his address to parliament on 30 September, said the British defence ministry in its daily briefing.

“Russia’s leaders almost certainly hope that any accession announcement will be seen as a vindication of the special military operation and will consolidate patriotic support for the conflict”, it said.

Meanwhile, the presidential adviser to Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky announced that those helping in the referendum will face treason charges and at least five years in jail.

“We have lists of names of people who have been involved in some way,” presidential adviser Mikhailo Podolyak told Swiss newspaper Blick.

“We are talking about hundreds of collaborators. They will be prosecuted for treason. They face prison sentences of at least five years.”

Additional reporting from the wires