Amidst Kyiv's incursion, Kremlin sends a harsh warning to Germany

Is World War III right around the bend? A recent warning from the Kremlin to Germany has some people asking this question.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev issued a stark warning to the West over an article in the German newspaper Bild that he stated boasted about German tanks returning to Russian territory. 

Medvedev was President of Russia between 2008 and 2012 before he served as Prime from 2012 to 2020. He is also a close ally of Vladimir Putin and still serves an important role in government as part of the Russian Security Council. 

Medvedev currently serves as Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council and is an outspoken leader in the Kremlin who often engages in aggressive public remarks attacking the West for its support of Ukraine.   

Taras Kuzio from the Washington think tank the Atlantic Council wrote in a March 2004 that Medvedev remarks he has “warned of possible nuclear attacks on Washington, Berlin, and London, and has vowed to seize more Ukrainian territory, including Kyiv.”

On August 9th, Medvedev once again showed his willingness to engage in public saber-rattling when he took to the social media platform X to threaten Berlin over a slight against Russia in the German newspaper Bild. 

“The German newspaper Bild has published a revanchist article where it proudly announces German tanks’ comeback to the Russian land,” Medvedev wrote, referring to the Nazi German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 according to Newsweek. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Koch, Public Domain

“In response, we’re going to do everything to bring the newest Russian tanks to Platz d. Republik,” Medvedev continued. Platz der Republik is one of the main public squares in Berlin and sits across from the Reichstag, where Germany’s federal parliament meets. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons Von Tobiasi0, Own Work, CC BY-SA 4.0

Newsweek added some context to the threat and noted Germany is a member state of NATO, which means any attack on the country by Russia would obligate Berlin’s allies to come to its aid due to Article 5 of the NATO treaty. 

It is important to note, however, that if Russian tanks were rolling down German roads toward Platz der Republik, it would likely be because a larger conflict with NATO was already triggered on its eastern border. 

Medvedev’s threat comes amid rising tensions between Russia and the West over its military and financial assistance to Ukraine, some of which is not being used by Kyiv in an attack that has seen Ukrainian forces invade Russian territory in Kursk Oblast. 

Germany and other Western allies of Ukraine like the United States have been reluctant to allow Ukraine to use their weapons on Russian territory, but that has slowly changed since Russia launched a renewed attack on Ukraine’s Kharkiv Oblast in May 2024. 

“As they see attacks coming across the border, they have to be able to have the capabilities to respond,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters during an August 8th briefing about the situation unfolding in Kursk. 

Singh added the United States did not support long-range attacks into Russian territory and that Washington had been clear with the Ukrainians about what they could not do with the weapons and equipment supplied by the White House.  

“Ukraine has the right to self defense enshrined in international law,” Germany's foreign ministry told Politico in a statement. “This is not limited to its own territory.” Whether Western weapons are being used in the attack isn't very clear. 

The Washington Post reported on August 8th that the Ukrainian incursion into Kursk did appear to be using American and European-supplied armored vehicles, noting footage showed at least one US-supplied Stryker and German Marder fighting vehicle in Russia. 

While the situation in Kursk is still unclear, CNN reported that the latest information according to independent analysis showed Russian authorities had lost as much as 250 square kilometers or roughly 155 square miles of territory since Ukraine launched its operation.