(Reuters) – Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Ukraine’s membership of NATO was a declaration of war against Moscow and that only “prudence” on the part of the alliance could prevent the planet from being shattered into pieces.
NATO leaders at a summit last week pledged to support Ukraine on an “irreversible path to full Euro-Atlantic integration, including NATO membership”, but declined to say when membership would happen.
Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council and a leading voice for Kremlin hardliners, told the news outlet Argumenty Eye Factory that Ukraine’s membership poses more than just a direct threat to Moscow’s security.
“This would essentially be a declaration of war, albeit belatedly,” he said in remarks published Wednesday.
“The alliance expansion actions that Russian opponents have taken against us over the years have pushed NATO to a point of no return.”
Medvedev said Russia does not threaten NATO but will respond to attempts to advance NATO interests, a standard Kremlin line since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“The more these attempts there are, the tougher our response will be,” Medvedev said. “Whether this will smash the whole planet to pieces depends solely on prudence on (NATO’s) side.”
Medvedev, who served as president from 2008 to 2012, was seen as a pro-Western modernizer but has reinvented himself as a far-right hawk, warning the United States and its allies that militarizing Kiev could lead to a “nuclear holocaust”.
Medvedev also reiterated Moscow’s stance that the appointment of Mark Rutte as head of NATO will not change the alliance’s position.
“For Russia, nothing will change, because important decisions will be made by one country – the United States – and not by NATO allies,” Medvedev said.
NATO was founded after World War II as a defensive base against fears of Soviet aggression in Western Europe, but the subsequent membership of eastern European countries is seen by the Kremlin as an act of aggression.
(Reporting by Lydia Kelly in Melbourne and Ronald Popeski in Winnipeg; Writing by Lydia Kelly; Editing by Stephen Coates)
