Russia could strike Nato with nuclear weapons, a key Putin ally warned, as he hit out at Sweden and Finland joining the bloc.
Dmitry Medvedev, former Russian prime minister and security council deputy, said the two Scandinavian countries have “automatically become targets for our armed forces.”
Mr Medvedev is an anti-Western hawk and has made repeated nuclear threats since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
“They are part of a bloc hostile to us which means they automatically became a target for our armed forces, including retaliatory strikes and even the nuclear component or preventive measures,” he said.
It comes after a major Russian drone attack on Ukraine killed a 12-year-old child this morning and wounded three others just hours after Russian president Vladimir Putin announced a fresh 72-hour ceasefire next weekend.
The girl was killed after one of 100 drones fired by Russia overnight hit a residential building in Samarivskyi district in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine’s emergency service said.
Shortly before the attack, Volodymyr Zelensky accused Mr Putin of “another attempt at manipulation” with his latest offer of a temporary ceasefire in Ukraine.
