Russia’s former president today threatened to target the Hague with hypersonic nuclear-capable missiles after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin over war crimes in Ukraine.
A ranting Dmitry Medvedev warned the ICC’s judges to ‘look carefully to the sky’ as he threatened to unleash the hypersonic anti-ship Onyx missile from a Russian ship on the court.
His warning came after the ICC on Friday called for Putin’s arrest and accused the Russian despot of committing war crimes by abducting Ukrainian children from their homes and deporting them to Russia to be given to Russian families.
Medvedev warned the ICC’s decision will have ‘monstrous’ consequences for international war as he said he would target the court with hypersonic nuclear-capable missiles.
‘Everyone walks under God and missiles. One can well imagine a point-blank use of a hypersonic Onyx from the North Sea by a Russian ship on The Hague courthouse,’ Medvedev, the Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council, warned.
A ranting Dmitry Medvedev warned the ICC’s judges to ‘look carefully to the sky’ as he threatened to unleash the hypersonic anti-ship Onyx missile from a Russian ship on the court
Deputy head of Russia’s Security Council Dmitry Medvedev, second right, and Deputy Defense Minister and State Secretary Nikolai Pankov, second left, visit a military enlistment office during their visit to Leningrad region, in Russia, on Thursday
Ukrainian servicemen fire an artillery called 2S7 Pion howitzer cannon aiming to Russian positions in the frontline nearby Bakhmut in Chasiv Yar, Ukraine on March 17
He continued: ‘It cannot be shot down, alas. And the court is only a miserable international organisation, not the population of a NATO country.
‘So they won’t start a war either. [The judges] are afraid. And no one will be sorry. So, citizen judges, look carefully to the sky.’
Medvedev also warned the ICC’s decision to issue a warrant for Putin’s arrest would have horrible consequences for international law.
‘They decided to try a president of a nuclear power that does not participate in the ICC on the same grounds as the United States and other countries.
‘The consequences for international law will be monstrous.’
Medvedev had previously compared the arrest warrant for Putin to toilet paper.
‘The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin. No need to explain WHERE this paper should be used,’ Medvedev wrote on Twitter, adding a toilet paper emoji.
Medvedev – once seen as a Kremlin liberal but now a hectoring hardliner – was president between 2008 and 2012, and had two separate stints as Russian prime minister.
His threat to unleash a series of hypersonic nuclear-capable missiles at the Hague came after Putin’s favourite TV propagandist Vladimir Solovyov demanded a nuclear strike on any Western country seeking to implement the dictator’s arrest.
Solovyov called for a Satan-2 intercontinental ballistic missile to be unleashed on ‘scumbag’ German Justice Minister Marco Buschmann after he said Putin faced arrest if he set foot in Germany.
He asked: ‘Do you want to wake up a Russian bear? You will wake it up… It will tear your gentle flesh to pieces.’
He stressed that the US, China and India – like Russia – do not recognise the court’s jurisdiction.
‘Just so they know, any attempt at implementation [of the arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin] is a declaration of war, and an immediate nuclear strike on the country – immediate,’ he told viewers across Russia’s 11 time zones.
‘Any attempt to go against the will of the Russian people… must be a strike.
‘And that moron [German] Justice Minister [Marco Buschmann] should meet the Sarmat [Satan-2 hypersonic missile]…
‘If we have to put troops in Holland for this purpose, then we have to put troops in Holland. And I don’t care if it is a NATO country.’
Solovyov called for a Satan-2 intercontinental ballistic missile (pictured during a test launch in April 2022) to be unleashed on ‘scumbag’ German Justice Minister Marco Buschmann after he said Putin faced arrest if he set foot in Germany
Solovyov asked the West: ‘Do you want to wake up a Russian bear? You will wake it up. You will wake it up.’
Margarita Simonyan, head of propaganda network RT, said: ‘As we know it anyway wakes up in spring.’
Solovyov said: ‘And it’s hungry in spring. It will tear your gentle flesh to pieces. There will be no negotiations with you, ever. Until you are destroyed. Until you moan for forgiveness.’
Loyalist MP and reservist Lt-Gen Andrey Gurulev told state TV channel Rossiya 1: ‘It’s time to decide that a step to the right, or the left – and you guys [the West] will get a nuclear strike on your heads.
‘We shouldn’t be scared of it. It wasn’t our president [Putin] who was charged with this criminal case [by the ICC].
‘It was to all Russian people, who support our president… All Russian people were declared illegal.’
The ICC’s president, Piotr Hofmanski, has admitted that while the court’s judges have issued the warrants, it will be up to the international community to enforce them. The court has no police force of its own to enforce warrants.
‘The ICC is doing its part of work as a court of law. The judges issued arrest warrants. The execution depends on international cooperation,’ Hofmanski said.
A possible trial of any Russians at the ICC remains a long way off, as Moscow does not recognise the court’s jurisdiction and does not extradite its nationals – a position reaffirmed on Friday by Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova in a first reaction to the warrants.
‘The decisions of the International Criminal Court have no meaning for our country, including from a legal point of view,’ she said.