Russia could wage war on Ukraine for 'decades', says Putin ally

Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, also threatened to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine

Russia's war will take decades and will not stop, if Ukraine does not surrender, a senior Russian official predicted.

Western countries warned that Russia could use any ceasefire to rebuild its army and invade again. In comments that seem to support this theory, Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, said that after any truce, Russia would go to war with Ukraine «again».

Mr Medvedev, famous for his aggressive rhetoric his opponents in the West, told Russian journalists during a trip to Vietnam that the Russians must prepare for protracted hostilities.

“This conflict will take a long time. for a long time — it will probably remain for decades,” he said.

“This is a new reality, new conditions of life.”

Launching the invasion last February, Vladimir Putin said it would be a limited military operation that would take weeks, if not days, to complete.

Unless the Kiev government falls, Medvedev said, “there will be three years of truce, two years of conflict — and all this again. He echoed the Kremlin's cliché about the «Nazi» regime in Kiev and said he saw no room for negotiations while Volodymyr Zelensky was still in power.

'The Inevitable Rules of War'

Speaking in Vietnam earlier Monday, the former Russian president also threatened to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine, prompting the Defense Department to issue a reprimand.

Warning the United States against transferring nuclear weapons to Kiev, Medvedev said: a missile with a nuclear charge will fly from them: these are the inevitable rules of war.”

In Moscow, a high-ranking Russian diplomat immediately reminded Medvedev of the military doctrine that allows the Kremlin to use nuclear weapons only in response to a nuclear strike on its territory.

“There has been no change in our approach to this complex and exciting issue,” Sergei Ryabkov, said the Deputy Foreign Minister.

There are no reliable reports that any of the nuclear powers is considering sending part of its arsenal to Ukraine.

Earlier this week, Russia and Belarus signed an agreement allowing Moscow to move and store some of its nuclear warheads in Belarus, which borders Ukraine and Poland.

The Kremlin insists the deal does not violate Moscow's nonproliferation obligations.