Days after President Donald Trump said he deployed nuclear submarines ‘in the region’ of Russia, the Kremlin has issued a warning to the world.
Trump said nuclear submarines are near Russia after previous threats from officials in the country.
He’s repeatedly given Russia an ultimatum to end the war in Ukraine soon, or face sanctions. The official deadline Trump has given Russia is August 8, but a war of words online has begun before that deadline.
‘I have ordered two Nuclear Submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions, just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that,’ wrote Trump on his Truth Social platform.
‘Words are very important, and can often lead to unintended consequences. I hope this will not be one of those instances.’
After being told to ‘watch his words’ by Trump, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev shocked many when he reminded the US of Russia’s nuclear strike capabilities.
‘Remember how dangerous the fabled ‘Dead Hand’ can be,’ Medvedev wrote on Telegram, referencing Soviet-era Doomsday nuclear weapons.
Now, the Kremlin has issued an official statement after Trump said nuclear submarines had been moved towards their country: ‘Russia is very attentive to nuclear non-proliferation. We believe that everyone must be extremely careful with nuclear rhetoric.’
But former Russian president Medvedev himself has threatened nuclear war if Russia loses the war in Ukraine.
‘It doesn’t occur to any of the wretches to draw the following elementary conclusion: That the loss of a nuclear power in a conventional war could provoke a nuclear war,’ he said in 2023.
‘Nuclear powers have not lost major conflicts on which their fate depends. And this should be obvious to anyone.’
Though the Kremlin has claimed ‘everyone’ must be careful with nuclear rhetoric, they themselves haven’t been.
On state-funded television, hosts have openly threatened nuclear attacks on Britain and other Western countries.
‘The people of Britain are there, they also want to live a good and happy life at our expense, right? But if there is no Britain, there is no problem,’ Reservist general and hardline MP Andrei Gurulev previously said.
In the face of these increasing threats, the US president’s tone toward Russia in recent weeks has changed to a more aggressive and far less friendly.
In July, when asked if he was done with Putin, Trump said: ‘I’m disappointed in him, but I’m not done with him. But I’m disappointed in him.’
And when pressed on whether he trusts the Russian leader, he replied: ‘I trust almost no one.’
Trump then said that the first lady was among the people who convinced him to change his tune toward Putin.
‘I go home, I tell the first lady, “You know, I spoke to Vladimir today. We had a wonderful conversation.” She said, “Oh, really? Another city was just hit,”’ he said.
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