Russia achieving goals in Ukraine on its own terms: Ex-president Medvedev

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has reiterated Moscow’s determination to successfully achieve its intended objectives in Ukraine to avoid annihilation by the West.

Medvedev, who is one of the closest allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Kremlin will not accept any peace deal without its own volition.

“Russia is conducting a special military operation in Ukraine and is attaining peace on our terms,” the former Russian president, who serves as deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, told TASS in an interview on Monday.

Medvedev cited the 2008 conflict in northern Georgia, the expansion of the NATO military alliance westwards, and the conflict in eastern Ukraine as part of an orchestrated US-led effort by the North Atlantic Alliance to annihilate Russia. “The goal is the same: to destroy Russia.”

Putin, in a speech in May, also expressed confidence that his country’s special military operation in Ukraine will achieve its intended goals.

Putin: ‘No doubt’ special military operation in Ukraine will achieve result

"All plans are being fulfilled. A result will be achieved - on that account there is no doubt," the Russian leader was quoted as saying.

Russia says its operation is aimed at the demilitarization and de-Nazification of the Donbas while voicing concerns about NATO’s expansion in Ukraine.

The Russian president says NATO’s expansion across Eastern Europe is a serious threat to Russia. Ukraine, however, says Russia’s concern is unfounded.

Meanwhile, the conflict in the former Soviet state drags on for more than five months.

UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, warned last week at the opening of the NPT conference at the UN’s headquarters in New York that the world was only one misstep away from “nuclear annihilation.”

UN secretary-general warns of 'nuclear annihilation'

UN chief warns "humanity is just one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation."

Speaking at another event on Monday, he told reporters in Tokyo that after decades the risk of nuclear war had re-emerged.

Guterres urged all nuclear-armed countries “to commit to the principle of non-first use.”

Russia and Ukraine have also been blaming one another for a recent attack at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station, which has been under Russian control since the early days of the conflict.

Officials at the Zaporizhzhia plant, located near the city of Enerhodar, said the attack by Ukrainian forces on Sunday had damaged buildings inside the complex.

The UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has also raised the alarm, warning both sides of the conflict about “the very real risk of a nuclear disaster.”

Guterres condemned the attack and said that the UN “supports the IAEA on their efforts in relation to creating the conditions of stabilization of that plant.”

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