Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify Medvedev’s title and comments.
(NewsNation) — Russia‘s former president said Americans should remember “that Russia can use weapons a bomb shelter won’t protect against.”
In a post on X Thursday morning, Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chair of the Russian security council, also referred to Ukraine‘s president as “the Kiev drug addict” and a “freak.”
“The Kiev drug addict said the Kremlin should know where a bomb shelter is so its occupants can hide when he uses long-range American weapons,” Medvedev wrote. “What the freak needs to know is that Russia can use weapons a bomb shelter won’t protect against. Americans should also keep this in mind.”
Russia has the most nuclear warheads in the world, according to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.
Medvedev’s remarks were a response to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s suggestion that Kremlin officials should locate bomb shelters if Russia refused to end its war in Ukraine.
“First of all, they have to know where their bomb shelters are,” Zelensky said in an interview clip released Thursday by Axios. “They need it. If they will not stop the war, they will need it in any case.”
He emphasized that Ukraine will not attack Russian civilians because “we are not terrorists,” but vowed to retaliate against continued Russian strikes on its energy infrastructure.
The remarks come as the Kremlin escalates its rhetoric amid Ukraine’s continued resistance and sustained Western military support. Medvedev, who previously served as Russia’s president and prime minister, has used threatening language in response to the U.S., particularly when commenting on Western involvement in the war.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump on Tuesday suggested NATO countries should shoot down Russian aircraft that violate their airspaces — like Estonia, Poland and Ukraine — and threatened more sanctions and tariffs against Moscow.
In a notable shift, Trump also said he believes Ukraine can win back land lost in the war against Russia’s invasion, allowing it to restore its “original borders.”