Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday that the supply of Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine by the US could end badly for everyone, especially for US President Donald Trump.
Medvedev, who has repeatedly provoked Trump on social media, said it is impossible to distinguish between Tomahawk missiles carrying nuclear warheads and conventional ones once they are launched.
"How should Russia respond? Exactly!" Medvedev said on Telegram, hinting that Moscow's response would be nuclear.
Trump said again on Sunday that he could offer long-range Tomahawk missiles that could be used by Kiev if Putin does not end the war in Ukraine.
"Yes, I can tell him (Putin), if the war is not resolved, we can do it very well," Trump said. "We may not do it, but we can do it... Do they want the Tomahawks to go their way? I don't think so," Trump declared.
Medvedev wrote: "We can only hope that this is another empty threat... Like sending nuclear submarines closer to Russia."
He was referring to Trump's statement in August that he had ordered two nuclear submarines to move closer to Russia in response to what he called "very provocative" comments by Medvedev about the risk of war.
Putin has said that supplying Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles, which have a range of 2,500 km and can therefore strike anywhere within European Russia, including Moscow, would destroy relations between the United States and Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that Ukraine would use Tomahawk missiles only for military purposes and not to attack civilians in Russia, if the US provided them.