Trump Deploys Nuclear Submarines In Row With Russia Over Statements From Medvedev
US President ordered the deployment of two nuclear submarines in an extraordinary escalation of an online war of words with former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev.
Published : August 2, 2025 at 6:47 AM IST
Washington: In a warning to Russia, President Donald Trump said Friday he's ordering the repositioning of two U.S. nuclear submarines “based on the highly provocative statements” of the country's former president, Dmitry Medvedev, who has raised the prospect of war online.
Trump posted on his social media site that, based on the “highly provocative statements” from Medvedev, he had “ordered two Nuclear Submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions, just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that.” The president added, “Words are very important, and can often lead to unintended consequences, I hope this will not be one of those instances.”
It wasn’t clear what impact Trump’s order would have on U.S. nuclear subs, which are routinely on patrol in the world’s hotspots, but it comes at a delicate moment in the Trump administration's relations with Moscow.
Trump has said that special envoy Steve Witkoff is heading to Russia to push Moscow to agree to a ceasefire in its war with Ukraine and has threatened new economic sanctions if progress is not made. He cut his 50-day deadline for action to 10 days, with that window set to expire next week.
The post about the sub repositioning came after Trump, in the wee hours of Thursday morning, had posted that Medvedev was a “failed former President of Russia” and warned him to “watch his words.” Medvedev responded hours later by writing, “Russia is right on everything and will continue to go its own way.”
And that back-and-forth started earlier this week when Medvedev wrote, “Trump’s playing the ultimatum game with Russia: 50 days or 10” and added, “He should remember 2 things: 1. Russia isn’t Israel or even Iran. 2. Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war. Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with his own country.”
Asked as he was leaving the White House on Friday evening for a weekend at his estate in New Jersey about where he was repositioning the subs, Trump didn’t offer any specifics. “We had to do that. We just have to be careful,” he said. “A threat was made, and we didn’t think it was appropriate, so I have to be very careful.”
Trump also said, “I do that on the basis of safety for our people” and “we’re gonna protect our people.” He later added of Medvedev, “He was talking about nuclear.” “When you talk about nuclear, we have to be prepared,” Trump said. “And we’re totally prepared.”
Medvedev was Russia's president from 2008 to 2012, while Vladimir Putin was barred from seeking a third consecutive term, and then stepped aside to let him run again. Now deputy chairman of Russia’s National Security Council, which Putin chairs, Medvedev has been known for his provocative and inflammatory statements since the start of the war in 2022. That's a U-turn from his presidency, when he was seen as liberal and progressive.
Medvedev has frequently wielded nuclear threats and lobbed insults at Western leaders on social media. Some observers have argued that with his extravagant rhetoric, Medvedev is seeking to score political points with Putin and Russian military hawks.
One such example before the latest spat with Trump came on July 15, after Trump announced plans to supply Ukraine with more weapons via its NATO allies and threatened additional tariffs against Moscow. Medvedev posted then, “Trump issued a theatrical ultimatum to the Kremlin. The world shuddered, expecting the consequences. Belligerent Europe was disappointed. Russia didn’t care.”
A LOOK AT US BASES IN EUROPE : More than forty U.S. military bases span the continent, from northwestern Greenland to Turkey’s border with Russia. The bulk of bases are concentrated in central Europe—primarily in Germany, Italy, Poland, and the United Kingdom.
A LOOK AT MAJOR CRISIS BETWEEN USA AND RUSSIA
1947: Cold War Begins: The struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union for domination in certain sectors and parts of the world is dubbed the Cold War. It will last until 1991.
1957: Space Race: The Soviets launch Sputnik, the first manmade object to orbit the Earth. Americans, who had confidently felt they were ahead of the Soviets in technology and science, redoubled their efforts in science, engineering, and the overall space race.
1960: Spy Charges: The Soviets shoot down an American spy plane gathering information over Russian territory. The pilot, Francis Gary Powers, was captured alive. He spent nearly two years in a Soviet prison before being exchanged for a Soviet intelligence officer captured in New York.
1960: Shoe Fits: Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev uses his shoe to bang on his desk at the United Nations while the American delegate is speaking.
1962: Missile Crisis: The stationing of U.S. nuclear missiles in Turkey and Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba leads to the most dramatic and potentially world-shattering confrontation of the Cold War. In the end, both sets of missiles were removed.
1980: Olympic Politics: The United States and 60 other countries boycott the Summer Olympics (held in Moscow) to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
1982: War of Words: U.S. President Ronald Reagan begins to refer to the Soviet Union as an "evil empire".
1984: More Olympic Politics: The Soviet Union and a handful of countries boycott the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
1991: USSR's End: In the final days of December, the Soviet Union dissolved itself and was replaced by 15 different independent states, including Russia. Russia honours all treaties signed by the former Soviet Union and assumes the United Nations Security Council seat formerly held by the Soviets.
2002: Treaty: U.S. President George Bush unilaterally withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty signed by the two countries in 1972.
2003: Iraq War Dispute: Russia strongly opposes the American-led invasion of Iraq.
2007: Poland Controversy: An American plan to build an anti-ballistic missile defense system in Poland drew strong Russian protests.
2008: A violent military conflict between Russia and Georgia highlights a growing rift in U.S.-Russian relations.
2013: Russian Rearmament: Russian President Vladimir Putin rearms the Tagil Rocket divisions with advanced RS-24 Yars intercontinental ballistic missiles in Kozelsk, Novosibirsk.
2013: Edward Snowden Asylum: Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee and a contractor for the United States government, copied and released hundreds of thousands of pages of secret U.S. government documents. Wanted on criminal charges by the U.S., he fled and was granted asylum in Russia.
2014: Russian Missile Testing: The U.S. government formally accused Russia of having violated the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty by testing a prohibited medium-range ground-launched cruise missile and threatened to retaliate accordingly.
2014: U.S. Imposes Sanctions on Russia: After the collapse of the Ukraine government. Russia annexes the Crimea. The U.S. government imposed punitive sanctions for Russia's activity in Ukraine. The U.S. passed the Ukraine Freedom Support Act, aimed at depriving certain Russian state firms of Western financing and technology while also providing $350 million in arms and military equipment to Ukraine.
2016: Disagreement Over the Syrian Civil War: Bilateral negotiations over Syria were unilaterally suspended by the U.S in October 2016, after a renewed offensive on Aleppo by Syrian and Russian troops. On the same day, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree that suspended the 2000 Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement with the U.S., citing the failure by the U.S. to comply with the provisions thereof as well as the U.S.' unfriendly actions that posed a "threat to strategic stability."
2016: Accusation of Russian Meddling in American Presidential Election: In 2016, American intelligence and security officials accuse the Russian government of being behind massive cyber-hackings and leaks that aimed at influencing the 2016 U.S. presidential election and discrediting the U.S. political system. Russian President Vladimir Putin denied favoring the eventual winner of the political contest, Donald Trump. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton suggested that Putin and the Russian government meddled in the American election process, which led to her loss to Trump.
August 2017: Trump signs a bill passed overwhelmingly by Congress that imposes new sanctions on Russia over its actions in Ukraine and alleged election interference.
October 2018: Trump announces his intention to have the United States pull out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.
June 2019: The U.S. agrees to station "about 1,000" more military personnel in Poland. The Russian Foreign Ministry says the move represents a “further dangerous build-up of military capabilities on the continent.”
November 2021 : Putin calls U.S. and NATO activities in the Black Sea a "serious challenge" to Russia, specifically noting exercises involving a “powerful naval group” and strategic bombers.
December 2021: Putin warns the West against crossing Moscow’s “red lines” in Ukraine. On Dec. 1 he calls for “legal guarantees” that NATO will not expand eastward; his aide Yuri Ushakov echoes this demand two days later. On Dec. 2, Lavrov says Moscow would soon put forward proposals for a new European security pact that would hopefully stop such expansion.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by ETV Bharat staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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