Medvedev: Aim of nuclear exercises is to work out response to attacks on Russian soil

The aim of nuclear exercises planned by Russia is to work out the response to any attacks on Russian soil which the West has allowed Ukraine to carry out with the weapons it supplies, senior Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev said on Friday.

Medvedev, a former president who is now deputy chairman of Russia's security council, warned the West that Russia could attack not only Ukraine in response to such attacks.

"Under certain circumstances, the response (to such attacks) will be aimed not only at Kyiv," Medvedev wrote on the Telegram messaging app. "And not just with conventional explosives, but also with a special kind of arms."

Russia said on Monday it would practise the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons as part of a military exercise after what Moscow said were threats from France, Britain and the United States.

Medvedev referred in particular to British Foreign Secretary David Cameron's recent comments about Ukraine being allowed to use British-supplied weapons against targets inside Russia. He used a profanity to describe Cameron.