Key Takeaways:

• ACCORDING TO PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN'S CLOSEST SUPPORTERS, the US and its allies' expanding military assistance for Ukraine risks provoking a conflict between Russia and NATO.
• Putin presents the crisis as an inevitability clash with the US, claiming that Ukraine and Russia are one people.

On Thursday, one of President Vladimir Putin's closest supporters warned the West that the US and its allies' escalating military assistance for Ukraine risked sparking a clash between Russia and the NATO military alliance.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who is currently the deputy chairman of Russia's security council, said a fight with NATO always could escalate into a full-fledged nuclear war.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24 killed tens of thousands of people, destroyed large swaths of its former Soviet neighbor, and sparked fears of the most serious confrontation between Russia as well as the US since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

"NATO countries pushing weapons into Ukraine, training forces to utilize Western equipment, sending in mercenaries, and also Alliance countries conducting drills near our borders enhance the probability of a direct and open conflict between NATO and Russia," Medvedev wrote on Telegram.

"Any confrontation like this has the potential to escalate into a full-fledged nuclear war," Medvedev added. "This is heading to be a disaster for everyone."

According to the Washington-based Arms Control Association, Russia possesses 6,257 nuclear weapons, whereas NATO's three nuclear powers – the US, United Kingdom, and France – have 6,065 warheads.

Putin claims that the "special military operation" in Ukraine is required because the US had used Ukraine to threaten Russia, and Moscow needed to defend Russian-speaking people.

Putin, who claims that Ukraine and Russia are one people, portrays the conflict as an unavoidable clash with the US. He accuses menacing Russia by intervening in its backyard through NATO's eastward expansion.

Ukraine maintains it is battling an imperial land grab, and Putin's accusations of genocide are false. According to Kyiv, Putin's invasion has only increased the Ukrainian people's desire to leave Russia's orbit.