One of President Putin’s closest allies warned today that military support given to Ukraine by the United States and its allies risked triggering conflict between Russia and Nato.

Dmitry Medvedev, a former prime minister under Putin and president from 2008 to 2012 who is now deputy chairman of Russia’s security council, said that such a conflict had the risk of turning into a nuclear war.

“The fact that NATO countries are sending weapons to Ukraine, training troops to use Western equipment, sending mercenaries, as well as Allied exercises near our borders, increase the likelihood of a direct and open conflict between NATO and Russia,” Medvedev stated in a post on Telegram.

“Such a conflict always carries the risk of turning into a full-blown nuclear war,” Medvedev said.