Getty ImagesUS President Donald Trump says he has ordered two nuclear submarines to “be positioned in the appropriate regions” in response to “highly provocative” comments by former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
Trump said he acted “just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that. Words are very important, and can often lead to unintended consequences, I hope this will not be one of those instances”.
He did not say where the two submarines were being deployed, in keeping with US military protocol.
Medvedev has recently threatened the US in response to Trump’s ultimatums to Moscow to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine, or face tough sanctions.
Russia and the US possess the most nuclear arms in the world, and both countries have a fleet of nuclear submarines.
In Friday’s post on Truth Social, Trump wrote: “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 say whether he was referring to nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed submarines in his post on Truth Social.
Speaking to reporters later on Friday, Trump said: “A threat was made, and we didn’t think it was appropriate. So I have to be very careful.
“I do that on the basis of safety for our people. A threat was made by a former president of Russia. And we’re going to protect our people.”
The Kremlin has so far made no public comments on the issue, but Moscow’s stock market fell sharply following Trump’s statements.
Trump and Medvedev have recently been involved in a series of personal attacks against each other on social media.
It comes after Trump set a new deadline for Putin to bring the war to an end by 8 August – which Putin has shown no signs of doing.
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.
ReutersMedvedev – who was Russia’s president from 2008 to 2012 – accused Trump of playing “the ultimatum game with Russia” earlier this week.
In a post on X, Medvedev said “each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war”.
He also described Trump’s ultimatum as “theatrical” earlier in July, saying that “Russia didn’t care”.
Writing on Telegram on Thursday, Medvedev warned of a “dead hand” threat – which some military analysts understood as a reference to the codename of Russia’s retaliatory nuclear strikes control system.
Friday wasn’t the first time Trump responded to Medvedev’s comments. On Thursday, he described Medvedev as “the failed former president of Russia, who thinks he’s still president”.
Trump also warned Medvedev to “watch his words”, adding that “he’s entering very dangerous territory!”
Medvedev supports Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine launched in 2022, and is an outspoken critic of the West.
