The former president of Russia hints at a nuclear war possibility if Russia loses the Ukraine conflict and returns to the 1991 borders

Dmitry Medvedev, former President of Russia, has a reputation for his controversial remarks about Western countries. In his latest post on Telegram, he asserts that "a nuclear power cannot lose a war".

He is responding to Western leaders' insistence that "the world cannot afford a Russian victory in this war".

"Just imagine for a moment that Russia lost, and 'Ukraine and its allies' won. What would victory mean for our enemies - the neo-Nazis and their Western sponsors? As is often stated, it would mean a return to the 1991 borders. This would signal a direct, irreversible collapse of modern Russia, which constitutionally includes new territories. This could even ignite a severe civil war, ending with our country's elimination from the world map. We would be facing tens of millions of casualties, the death of our future, and the end of everything as we know it in the world," writes Medvedev.

The Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation argues that Russian citizens will not accept such a division of their country. Furthermore, he adds that the Russian Federation Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief won't hesitate to make the harshest decisions.

"The collapse of Russia would result in consequences far more terrifying than the impacts of an ordinary, even a long-running war. This is because attempts to revert Russia to the 1991 borders would only lead to one thing: a global war with Western countries, utilizing our state's entire strategic arsenal," writes Medvedev, citing Kyiv, Berlin, London, and Washington DC as places that have "long been on the target list".

"If our great homeland, our millennial country, were at risk of disappearing, and if the sacrifices made by the Russian nation over the centuries were on the brink of waste, would we dare to act? The answer is obvious," Medvedev adds.