Possible nuclear strike?

Medvedev threatens Poland with “radioactive ash”

Hardliner Medvedev (at a Russian military training last year) repeatedly attracts attention with provocations.(Bild: APA/AFP/SPUTNIK/Yekaterina SHTUKINA)

Russia's former President Dmitry Medvedev has threatened Poland with "radioactive ash" following statements by the Polish Foreign Minister. Minister Radosław Sikorski had spoken in an interview about how the USA would presumably react to a Russian use of nuclear weapons against Ukraine.

"The Americans have told the Russians that if you detonate a nuclear bomb, even if it doesn't kill anyone, we will hit all your targets in Ukraine with conventional weapons, we will destroy them all," Sikorski told the British newspaper "Guardian". Poland is one of Ukraine's strongest supporters.

Americans "more cautious"
The USA had said nothing of the sort "because they are more cautious", Medvedev wrote on the social network X. "If Americans hit our targets, it means a world war, and a foreign minister, even of a country like Poland, should understand that," the deputy head of the Russian Security Council said on Sunday.

Poland's Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski(Bild: AP)

Polish President Andrzej Duda had asked for tactical nuclear weapons from the USA to be stationed in Poland, he claimed. "Warsaw will not be left out and will certainly get its share of radioactive ash. Is that what you want?" Medvedev added. Duda had said in April that Poland was "ready" to accept NATO nuclear weapons - as a counterweight to the deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.

Agitating hardliner Medvedev
Medvedev was seen as Russia's liberal hope during his time as president from 2008 to 2012. Since the Russian attack on Ukraine, however, he has become one of the biggest hardliners and defends the war with inflammatory posts on social networks.

Sikorski's comments are likely to relate to the fall of 2022. US media have repeatedly reported that the leadership in Washington had the impression at the time that Moscow could be preparing to use a nuclear bomb in Ukraine. It was conveyed to the Kremlin that the USA would not react to this with nuclear weapons, but would respond forcefully with other means.