US President Donald Trump has ordered two nuclear submarines to “be positioned in the appropriate regions” in reaction to former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s “highly provocative” remarks. Trump claimed he acted “just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than that.” Words are highly important, and they can often have unforeseen implications; I hope this is not one of those cases.” In accordance with US military convention, he did not specify where the two submarines would be placed. Medvedev recently challenged the United States in reaction to Trump’s ultimatum to Moscow to adhere to a cease-fire in Ukraine or face severe sanctions.
Russia and the United States have the most nuclear weapons in the world, and each has a fleet of nuclear submarines. In his tweet on Friday, Trump said: “Based on the highly provocative statements of the former president of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, who is now the deputy chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, I have ordered two nuclear submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions.” The US president did not specify if he was talking to nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed submarines in his Truth Social post. Speaking to reporters later that day, Trump stated: “A threat was made, and we did not think it was acceptable. So I have to be really cautious.
“I do that to ensure the protection of our people. Russia’s former president issued a threat. And we’ll protect our folks.” The Kremlin has yet to make a public statement on the matter, but Moscow’s stock market plummeted dramatically in response to Trump’s remarks. Trump and Medvedev have recently engaged in a series of personal attacks on each other via social media. It comes after Trump set a fresh deadline for current Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop the war by August 8 – something Putin has showed no signs of fulfilling.
Before that, on Monday, Trump had set a “10 or 12” day deadline. Earlier in July he threatened Russia with severe tariffs targeting its oil and other exports if Putin did not end the war in 50 days.
Medvedev, Russia’s president from 2008 to 2012, accused Trump of playing “the ultimatum game with Russia” earlier this week. Medvedev stated in a post on X that “each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war”. He also called Trump’s ultimatum “theatrical” earlier in July, claiming that “Russia didn’t care”. Medvedev warned of a “dead hand” threat on Telegram on Thursday, which some military analysts interpreted as a reference to the codename of Russia’s control system for retaliatory nuclear attacks. Trump has responded to Medvedev’s comments before, and Friday was no exception. He labelled Medvedev as “the failed former president of Russia, who thinks he’s still president” on Thursday.
Trump also urged Medvedev to “watch his words,” noting that “he’s entering very dangerous territory!”. Medvedev is an ardent critic of the West and supports Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which is set to begin in 2022.
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