MOSCOW

The deputy head of Russia's Security Council warned Friday that if the West delivers nuclear arms to Ukraine, Russia would have to carry out a preventive strike.

Dmitry Medvedev told reporters in Moscow that the West has been supplying Ukraine with gradually heavier weapons since the beginning of the war last year, when it started sending Kyiv small arms, while now they plan to deliver F-16 fighter jets.

"There are irreversible laws of war. If it comes to (supplying Ukraine with) nuclear weapons, it will be necessary to launch a preemptive strike," he stressed.

Medvedev, who served as Russian president in 2008-2012, claimed that the US "earns money" on the conflict in Ukraine, while simultaneously damaging its "centuries-old enemy," Russia.

As for Europe, Medvedev said it "went crazy," behaving in ways that escalate the conflict in Ukraine.

"This conflict (in Ukraine) is very long-lasting ... for decades, probably. This is a new reality, new living conditions. Under the Kyiv regime, there will be three years of truce, two years of conflict — and everything will repeat again," he noted.

Asked about Russia's preferred result of the coming 2024 US presidential election, Medvedev took a jab at the old age of incumbent Joe Biden, 80, saying that "the main thing" was that "a guy with dementia" is not elected.