Amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s friend, Viktor Medvedchuk, recently predicted that a nuclear strike will “most likely” be coming.

Putin and senior Russian officials have repeatedly threatened nuclear escalation against Kyiv and its Western partners since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

During Putin’s annual state of the nation address last month he warned that Russia’s “strategic nuclear forces are in a state of full readiness.” He also warned that there was a genuine risk of nuclear war if Western nations send troops to Ukraine, as suggested by French President Emmanuel Macron last month.

Western nations, Putin added, “must realize that we also have weapons that can hit targets on their territory. All this really threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons and the destruction of civilization. Don’t they get that?”

However, Macron appears to have walked back his previous comments earlier this month about sending troops to Ukraine. During an interview with Czech news publication Novinky.cz. Macron emphasized that France is not actively considering sending military forces to Ukraine.

“In response to one question I was asked about sending troops, I said that nothing is out of the question,” he recalled. “This does not mean that we are considering the possibility of sending French troops to Ukraine in the near future, but we are starting discussions and thinking about everything that can be done to support Ukraine, especially on Ukrainian territory.”

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