Ukraine war: Putin ally indicates we are ‘probably on verge of new world war’, as Kyiv counteroffensive looms

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told a conference in Moscow that ‘the world is sick and quite probably is on the verge of a new world war’

Medvedev said a new world war was not inevitable but the risks of a nuclear confrontation were growing and more serious than concerns about climate change

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Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said “The world is sick and quite probably is on the verge of a new world war,”. Photo: Pool via AP

Published: 5:45pm, 25 Apr 2023

An ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that the world was probably on the verge of a new world war and the risks of a nuclear confrontation were rising.

“The world is sick and quite probably is on the verge of a new world war,” Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Putin’s powerful security council, told a conference in Moscow.

He said such a new world war was not inevitable but the risks of a nuclear confrontation were growing and more serious than concerns about climate change.

Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman and the head of the United Russia party Dmitry Medvedev. Photo: Pool via AP

Putin says the world faces the most dangerous decade since World War II. He casts the war in Ukraine as an existential battle with an aggressive and arrogant West, and has said that Russia will use all available means to protect itself against any aggressor.

The United States and its allies have condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as an imperial land grab. Ukraine has vowed to fight until all Russian troops withdraw from its territory, and says Russian rhetoric on nuclear war is intended to intimidate the West into curbing military aid.

Ukraine counteroffensive looms

Ukrainian forces based on the western side of the River Dnipro are frequently carrying out raids on the eastern bank near the city of Kherson to try to dislodge Russian troops, a regional official said on Tuesday.