In response to a comment by Polish Foreign Minister (“Thank you, USA”) Radosław Sikorski, Russia’s former President and currently Deputy Chair of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev posted today: “Americans hitting our targets means starting a world war, and a Foreign Minister, even of a country like Poland, should understand that.”
Sikorski had said to The Guardian on May 25 that the “Americans have told the Russians that if you explode a nuke, even if it doesn’t kill anybody, we will hit all your targets [positions] in Ukraine with conventional weapons, we’ll destroy all of them.” He said the U.S. warning was a “credible threat.” Then he supported the idea of letting Kyiv use Western weapons to strike military targets on Russian territory since, as “apart from not using nuclear weapons, [Moscow] does not limit itself much.” So, the EU should not be afraid of further escalation.
Medvedev countered that Sikorski “apparently, has decided to scare his masters” in Washington. However, he said that Washington, unlike Warsaw, has so far refrained from making any such threats publicly “because they are more cautious” than the Poles. Medvedev also cited that an example of Polish recklessness was President Andrzej Duda’s April remark about basing U.S. tactical nuclear weapons in Poland. He added that, in case of a nuclear confrontation, “Warsaw won’t be left out, and will surely get its share of radioactive ash.” He questioned whether this was what Poland’s leaders want.
