MOSCOW, January 11. /TASS/. Ukraine's attempts to destroy Russia’s missile launchers with long-range Western missiles could potentially trigger a nuclear response, the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, said on his Telegram channel.

If Kiev is to be believed, he warned, "the best method of fighting Russia is to destroy launchers across the country’s territory with long-range missiles provided by the West."

"What does this mean? Only one thing. They [the Ukrainian authorities] will run the risk of activating paragraph 19 of the basic principles of Russia's state policy in the field of nuclear deterrence: aggression against Russia with the use of conventional weapons, when the very existence of the state is threatened," Medvedev wrote.

He noted that strikes on Russia’s missile launchers had nothing to do with the right to self-defense. In fact, they provide a clear rationale for Moscow to use nuclear weapons against Kiev. "All successors to Hitler, Mussolini, Petain and others in today's Europe, which supports the Nazis in Kiev, should bear this in mind," Medvedev added.