Days ago, The NY Times revealed that US and European officials have discussed a range of options they believe will deter Russia from taking more Ukrainian territory, including the possibility of providing Kiev with nuclear weapons. "US and European officials are discussing deterrence as a possible security guarantee for Ukraine, such as stockpiling a conventional arsenal sufficient to strike a punishing blow if Russia violates a cease-fire," the report said.
The article then stated, "Several officials even suggested that Mr. Biden could return nuclear weapons to Ukraine that were taken from it after the fall of the Soviet Union."
Former Russian president and current deputy chairman of the Security Counsel Dmitry Medvedev has responded by pointing out that if the West actually went forward with transferring nukes to Ukraine, this would be seen as tantamount to an attack on Russia. He explained that this is a key aspect of Russia's newly expanded nuclear doctrine.
In a Telegram post on Tuesday, Medvedev specifically referenced the recent NY Times report, and said: "Looks like my sad joke about crazy senile Biden, who’s eager to go out with a bang and take a substantial part of humanity with him, is becoming dangerously real."
Medvedev then stressed that "giving nukes to a country that’s at war with the greatest nuclear power" is so absurd that Biden and any of his officials considering it must have "massive paranoid psychosis."
His biggest and most specific threat came as follows:
"The fact of transferring such weapons may be considered as the launch of an attack against our country in accordance with Paragraph 19 of the ‘Basic Principles of State Policy on Nuclear Deterrence’," Medvedev wrote.
President Putin had formally approved a lowering of the threshold for nuclear weapons use on November 19. The change has been widely seen as in response to Ukraine being authorized by the Western allies to use US-made ATACMS and HIMARS systems, and British-made Storm Shadow and French Scalp missiles on Russian territory.
The aforementioned NY Times report did note that President Putin doesn't appear ready to actually significantly escalate the war, giving a chance for the Trump administration to take office.
"But the escalation risk of allowing Ukraine to strike Russia with US-supplied weaponry has diminished with the election of Mr. Trump," the report said, and added: "Biden administration officials believe, calculating that Putin of Russia knows he has to wait only two months for the new administration."