During a conference in Moscow, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev warned that the” world is sick and quite probably is on the verge of a new world war.” Medvedev, who is a close ally of current President Vladimir Putin, made the comments amid rising tensions between Russia and the West over the former’s special military operation in Ukraine.

Medvedev says that the threat of this war escalation further is a much more immediate threat than the mythological “climate change.”

“In my opinion, [climate change] is nothing compared to being in the epicenter of an explosion with a temperature of 5,000 Kelvin, a shockwave of 350 meters per second, and a pressure of 3,000 kilograms per square meter,” he said. “This [threat] exists today, unfortunately. It’s growing every day for known reasons. The Western world was unfair to our country to a large extent. Did they hear us? No, they didn’t. They simply mocked us all these years, wearing us down.”

“I cannot say what the last straw, what the trigger may be, but it may happen at some point,” he added. “We all need to work to ensure that this threat of a global confrontation, of a hot, full-scale World War III should not materialize.”

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The former president described how, in his youth, he and his friends would speculate about a potential confrontation between the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the former Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, a similar military alliance established by the communist nations of Eastern Europe at the time.

“Back then it seemed like some kind of hypothetical, far-fetched and impossible scenario,” he said. “But I can’t say that now, however sad that may sound.” -Natural News

Medvedev says the threat of nuclear war grows each day as tension between the West and Moscow quickly escalates. He also warned that Russia itself was prepared to use nuclear weapons to defend its very existence and is not averse to being the first to launch nuclear weapons if it feels like that’s an option. An act of aggression with non-nuclear weapons could be all it takes for Russia to “protect” itself with a nuclear attack.

“Let’s face it, if you have any weapons in your hands, and I, as a former president, know what they are, you should be prepared, that in a certain situation, you won’t hesitate to use them, no matter how monstrous and cruel it may sound,” said Medvedev. “Our potential adversaries should not underestimate this,” he added. “All these speculations about how the Russians will never do this are worthless. The Western analysts and Western commanders, both military and political leaders, should simply assess our rules and our intentions.”