“Where exactly should we evacuate?”

Russia issues new

nuclear warning

An ally of President Vladimir Putin issued a stark new nuclear warning to Ukraine and the West on Tuesday as referendums billed by Russia as a prelude to it annexing four Ukrainian regions entered their fifth and final day.

Tuesday's nuclear warning by Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, is one of several issued by Putin and his associates in recent weeks.

Analysts say they are designed to deter Ukraine and the West by hinting at a readiness to use tactical nuclear weapons to defend newly annexed territory, where Russian forces have faced strong Ukrainian counteroffensives in recent weeks.

Medvedev's warning differed from earlier ones in that he predicted for the first time that the NATO military alliance would not risk a nuclear war and directly enter the Ukraine war even if Moscow struck Ukraine with nuclear weapons.

"I believe that NATO would not directly interfere in the conflict even in this scenario," Medvedev said in a post on Telegram.

"The demagogues across the ocean and in Europe are not going to die in a nuclear apocalypse."
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Russian government officials have repeatedly warned they might use nuclear weapons to defend the new territory if Kyiv's forces, who are already in control of some of it, try to take what Moscow says it will soon regard as its sovereign territory.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said in an interview with Swiss newspaper Blick that Ukraine was preparing for the possibility of a Russian nuclear strike, but said the onus was on nuclear-armed states to deter Russia.

"...Where exactly should we evacuate people in the event of a Russian nuclear strike against Ukraine?" he asked.