Medvedev: Russia, unlike NATO countries, has never used nuclear weapons

Russia has never used tactical nuclear weapons or weapons with depleted uranium, unlike NATO member countries, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview with the French television channel LCI.

“If you are talking about tactical nuclear weapons or weapons with depleted uranium, then our country has not yet used such weapons. Unlike the NATO states, which over the past 20-30 years have used it quite actively both in Yugoslavia and Iraq, and around this there is both its own intrigue and its consequences, very sad, ”he said in response to a journalist’s question about whether Russia can use nuclear weapons (quote according to TASS).

How clarifies RIA Novosti, according to Medvedev, the Russian Federation can use this type of weapon only in four cases: when launching nuclear missiles, using nuclear weapons, striking critical infrastructure that controls nuclear weapons, or other actions that threaten the existence of the state itself. “So far, no such actions have been observed,” the deputy chairman of the Security Council noted.

UN Secretary General António Guterres has repeatedly stated the risk of unleashing a nuclear war. According to him, now the danger has reached unprecedented proportions since the height of the Cold War. He noted that humanity is only “one miscalculation” from a nuclear conflict. The UN Secretary General also called for the elimination of nuclear weapons.

At the same time, the Russian authorities have repeatedly said that the policy of Western countries could turn into a clash of nuclear powers. In August, the Russian embassy in the United States statedthat US actions increase nuclear risks. And Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov notedthat NATO countries are ignoring Russia’s “red lines”, which, according to him, “is fraught with further escalation up to a military clash of nuclear powers.”