Fact Check: Yes, former Russian president said 'number of countries' ready to supply Iran with nuclear warheads
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in June 2025 that "a number of countries are ready to directly supply Iran with their own nuclear warheads."
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On June 22, 2025, the U.S. attacked three nuclear facilities in Iran. That same day, posts on multiple social media sites — including Reddit (archived) and X (archived) — claimed former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev publicly posted, "A number of countries are ready to directly supply Iran with their own nuclear warheads."
⚡️BREAKING Dmitry Medvedev:There are countries ready to transfer nuclear weapons to Iran pic.twitter.com/AWnLykt3zX
— Iran Observer (@IranObserver0) June 22, 2025
Several posts collectively (archived, archived, archived) received millions of views. Top comments suggested some users believed the claim was fake or that the specific claim didn't show up in Medvedev's original post.
Despite these users' misgivings, Medvedev — who serves as the deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council — did publicly state (archived) that "a number of countries are ready to directly supply Iran with their own nuclear warheads." In a series of posts on an official X account, the former president wrote on June 22:
2. The enrichment of nuclear material — and, now we can say it outright, the future production of nuclear weapons — will continue.3. A number of countries are ready to directly supply Iran with their own nuclear warheads.
— Dmitry Medvedev (@MedvedevRussiaE) June 22, 2025
Several users in the comments then asked Medvedev to clarify whether that meant Russia would be supplying Iran with nuclear warheads, and in a follow-up statement (archived) more than 24 hours later, Medvedev said while he "condemned" the U.S.'s strike on Iran, Russia had "no intention of supplying nuclear weapons to Iran" given that Russia is party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, of which China and North Korea also are participants.
pic.twitter.com/Rz4zVRgh04
— Dmitry Medvedev (@MedvedevRussiaE) June 23, 2025
In this follow-up post on June 23, Medvedev also pointed to the New START Treaty — an agreement from 2011 between the U.S. and Russia that set and maintains limits on strategic offensive arms — as all the more reason "we definitely shouldn't be arguing over who has more nukes."
On June 23, U.S. President Donald Trump responded on his social media platform, Truth Social (archived), to Medvedev's assertion that numerous countries were ready to supply Iran with nuclear weapons.
"The 'N word' [nuclear] should not be treated so casually," he wrote, before going on to praise U.S. troops in the June 22 operation against Iranian nuclear sites.
(Truth Social user @realDonaldTrump)
U.S. Vice President JD Vance also responded in an interview with ABC News on June 23, saying Medvedev's claim was "bizarre" but that he didn't know whether Medvedev spoke for Putin or for the Russian government (at 4:15).
Breuninger, Kevin. 'Trump Slams Russia's Medvedev for Claiming Countries Will Give Iran Nuclear Warheads'. CNBC, 23 June 2025, https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/23/trump-iran-russia-medvedev-nuclear.html.
'New START Treaty'. United States Department of State, https://www.state.gov/new-start-treaty/. Accessed 23 June 2025.
Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) – UNODA. https://disarmament.unoda.org/wmd/nuclear/npt/. Accessed 23 June 2025.
UNODA Treaties Database. https://treaties.unoda.org/t/npt/participants. Accessed 23 June 2025.
- YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BP3ijHy1Hzg. Accessed 23 June 2025.
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