Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24 led to the worst crisis in relations between Russia and the West since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when many feared the world was on the brink of nuclear war. US President Joe Biden says Russian President Vladimir Putin is a war criminal and has led the West in arming Ukraine and imposing harsh sanctions on Russia.
Medvedev said on Telegram on Wednesday: “The idea of punishing the country with the greatest nuclear potential is absurd. And potentially a threat to the survival of humanity.”
According to the Federation of American Scientists, Russia and the United States control about 90 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons, each with about 4,000 warheads in their military stockpile.
Medvedev casts the United States as an empire that has bled the world by killing Native Americans, citing US nuclear attacks on Japan and countless wars from Vietnam to Afghanistan.
Mr Medvedev said attempts to use courts or tribunals to investigate Russia’s actions in Ukraine would be futile and could cause global catastrophe.
Ukraine and its western allies say the Russian military is engaged in war crimes.
Putin launched his offensive, calling it a “special military operation” to demilitarize Ukraine, which he said were dangerous nationalists, and to protect Russian-speakers in that country.
Ukraine and its allies say Russia launched an imperialist style of land grabs, waging the biggest conflict in Europe since World War II.
After Russia failed to take the capital Kiev early, Russia is now waging a war over Ukraine’s Donbass region, parts of which are controlled by Russian separatist proxies.
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