Russia’s Medvedev: We'd Have to Use a Nuclear Weapon If Ukrainian Offensive Was a Success

Deputy head of Russia's Security Council Dmitry Medvedev attends a meeting with officials and employees of the military industrial corporation "Scientific and Production Machine Building Association" in the town of Reutov in the Moscow region on April 25, 2023. Sputnik/Yekaterina Shtukina/Pool via Reuters

MOSCOW—Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who has sometimes raised the specter of a nuclear conflict over Ukraine, said on Sunday that Moscow would have to use a nuclear weapon if Kyiv’s ongoing counter-offensive was a success.

Mr. Medvedev, who is deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, a body chaired by President Vladimir Putin, said in a message on his official social media accounts that Russia would be forced to fall back on its own nuclear doctrine in such a scenario.