RT

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said “nobody should forget” about situations that could force Russia to use nuclear weapons, but stressed that “no one wants nuclear war.”

Since the launch of the Russian military offensive in Ukraine in late February, relations between Moscow and the West have soured to the lowest levels in modern history. Russia has repeatedly warned the US and its allies that sending more weapons to Ukraine risks direct confrontation between Russia and NATO.

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In April, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned that the risks of nuclear war are “quite significant.”  US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin blasted Lavrov’s remarks as “very dangerous and unhelpful.”  “Nobody wants to see a nuclear war happen. It’s a war where all sides lose,” Austin said.

While senior US officials, including President Joe Biden himself, insist they are not sending Ukraine weapons capable of striking Russia, it was confirmed this week that Kiev will receive HIMARS multiple rocket launchers from Washington. These systems fire barrage rockets with an effective range of around 30km, but can also deploy tactical ballistic missiles with a range of up to 300km.

https://www.rt.com/russia/556553-medvedev-russia-nuclear-war/

[You don’t suppose that some of those tactical ballistic missiles with a range of 300 km got left behind by Lloyd Austin in Afghanistan during the chaotic withdrawal from that nation and that the Taliban would sell those long range missiles to Ukraine?  Could a reasonable person put it beyond Zelensky to create an incident to force NATO into a direct confrontation with Moscow?  If Russia could get some of those $80 billion worth of American weapons given to the Taliban they could theoretically use them to create a false flag attack on Russia as a pretext to escalate the war to the nuclear level.   — S. Byron Gassaway]

Ukraine to decide range of Washington’s rockets – US ambassador