RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Medvedev outlines roadmap to ending Ukraine conflict

The conflict between Moscow and Kiev could be swiftly ended with no additional loss of lives if only NATO came to its senses and abandoned its belligerent policy towards Russia, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told Al Arabiya in an interview published on Friday.

Allowing Ukraine to use long-range Western weapons for strikes into internationally-recognized Russian territory has made the US-led bloc a direct party to the conflict, said Medvedev, who currently serves as deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council. Kiev has launched several strikes using US-made ATACMS and HIMARS systems, as well as British-made Storm Shadow missiles.

Moscow responded by striking a military industrial facility in the Ukrainian city of Dnepropetrovsk (known as Dnipro in Ukraine) with a new intermediate-range ballistic missile equipped with a conventional warhead. On Saturday, Paris officially confirmed that it had given Kiev the green light to use French-made SCALP-EG cruise missiles in long-range strikes against Russian territory.

“The NATO member states have essentially got fully engaged in this conflict,” Medvedev said, commenting on the developments. The former president said these nations should understand that they are currently at war on the Ukrainian side. “They are at war with the Russian Federation.”

Not only do Western nations supply Kiev with weapons and financial aid, but they also provide targeting for Western-made missiles, Medvedev stated. Moscow has insisted that these systems cannot be successfully operated without the involvement of specialists from the nations that produced them.

Under these circumstances, no developments can be ruled out, Medvedev warned, pointing to Russia’s recently updated nuclear doctrine that allows a nuclear response to a conventional attack by a non-nuclear state supported by a nuclear power, including a missile strike against Russian territory.

“Everyone who is currently stirring up the war hysteria, primarily within NATO, the US, and other states, should think about it,” the former president warned. Asked to elaborate on the potential use of nuclear weapons by Russia, he described it as a “realistic” possibility. He added, however, that Moscow would very much like to avoid that option.

“There are no madmen in the Russian leadership,” he stated, explaining that the nation’s nuclear doctrine was updated in accordance with modern deterrence needs.

According to Medvedev, the Ukraine conflict could be swiftly and easily ended with no need for any additional losses. If NATO merely “stops fanning the flames of war in Ukraine, this conflict can be ended with no expenses for humanity. No new expenses, at least,” he said.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russian forces capture British man fighting with Ukraine, RIA reports

Russian forces captured a British mercenary fighting with the Ukrainian army in Russia's Kursk region, which is still partially controlled by Kyiv forces, a security source told Russia's RIA state news agency.

"A mercenary from Great Britain, who called himself James Scott Rhys Anderson, was captured. He is now giving evidence," the Russian source told RIA in remarks published on Sunday.

In a video posted on unofficial pro-war Russian Telegram channels on Sunday, a young bearded man wearing military clothing with what appears to be his hands tied in the back, says in English that his name is James Scott Rhys Anderson and that he formerly served in the British Army.

Reuters could not independently verify the video and the RIA and other media reports.

It was not clear when the video was filmed. The British Foreign Office did not immediately respond to a Reuters' request for comment on the reports outside office hours.

The BBC reported earlier that the Foreign Office said it was "supporting the family of a British man following reports of his detention".

Ukraine forces, which staged a surprise incursion in the Russian border region of Kursk in August, still control parts of it. However, Kyiv said over the weekend that it has since lost over 40% of the territory that it had captured, as Russian forces have mounted waves of counter-assaults.

RT/Reuters