Vladimir Putin gave a chilling one-sentence response when asked whether Russia may launch direct strikes against the UK. Asked earlier this month whether Moscow might strike military facilities in the UK in response to British arms supplies to Ukraine, Putin said: "That's a secret. A military secret."
Medvedev's nuclear warning
Earlier this week Dmitry Medvedev, former Russian president and current Deputy Chairman of its Security Council, warned that Moscow's threats to use nuclear weapons are "reality" and "not a scare tactic". He accused western leaders of a "Neanderthal mindset and abysmal ignorance", and warned they were "trying to push the world to the brink of nuclear apocalypse". It was in reference to Western countries - including the UK - supporting Ukraine in its fight against Putin's illegal invasion.
There have already been "acts of aggression capable of triggering a Third World War", Medvedev warned. He added: "Such a conflict would obliterate the entire history of human civilization and plunge it back into a primitive state - assuming any of the planet's billions of people survived at all."
Threats against UK weapons sites
Russia has also made threats against sites in the UK which produce weapons used by Ukraine to strike Russian territory. Medvedev also claimed this week that Putin could turn to nuclear weapons in a bid to "secure an end to the [Ukraine] conflict on our terms". He said: "It must end on our terms to prevent any possibility of it recurring in the future or escalating into a global conflict."
He also urged the West to take Russia's threats about nuclear war seriously: "These are not hints. Everyone needs to understand: nuclear weapons could be used in certain circumstances. This is not a scare tactic - it is reality. Russia's nuclear doctrine - under which our country reserves the right to use such weapons in the event of a threat to our state's security - can hardly be described as a mere hint."
Expanded nuclear doctrine
Medvedev said: "The list of military threats requiring nuclear deterrence measures has also been expanded." He added: "We have every right to respond to a critical threat to our sovereignty. The final decision will rest with the Head of State [Putin]."
