World War 3 fears surged on Sunday after senior Vladimir Putin ally Dmitry Medvedev warned that a 'global catastrophe' may be imminent, following US‑Israel strikes in Iran that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and launched a furious attack on US President Donald Trump.
For context, tensions had already been spiralling across the Middle East before the latest escalation. Iran's leadership, long at odds with Washington and Tel Aviv, has faced years of sanctions, covert operations and proxy clashes, from Syria to the Gulf.
The joint American‑Israeli operation on Saturday 28 February, which Iranian officials have not yet fully detailed publicly, marked a sharp break from the shadow war of recent years and pushed open confrontation closer to the surface.
Medvedev's Warning Raises World War 3 Spectre Around Vladimir Putin
Medvedev, who served as Russia's president from 2008 to 2012 and is now a senior security official under Vladimir Putin, used his social media channels to frame the US‑Israel action as a turning point. In a characteristically combative message, he suggested the world is already close to the brink.
'Has the Third World War already begun, or is the world still not entering it, are we balancing?' he asked. 'Formally, no, but if Trump continues his insane course of criminal regime change, it will undoubtedly begin. And any event could trigger it. Any event.'
His claim that US policy under Trump amounts to 'criminal regime change' is not supported by any formal declaration in Washington, but it neatly fits the Kremlin's long‑running narrative of American overreach. Medvedev went further, casting the confrontation as a struggle for supremacy rather than self‑defence.
'This is a war by the US and its allies to maintain global dominance. The pigs don't want to give up their trough. Trump made a grave mistake,' he wrote.
Medvedev argued that killing Khamenei would have profound consequences for Iran's internal politics and the broader Shia world. He described the late leader as 'the spiritual father of nearly 300 million Shiites' and added; 'And now he's also a martyr. You can fill in the rest yourself.'
Medvedev then issued perhaps his most alarming prediction: 'And now there's no doubt that Iran will redouble its efforts to develop nuclear weapons.' To date, Iran has insisted its nuclear programme is civilian, while the US and European powers accuse it of edging towards weapons capability. No fresh evidence of a weapons push directly linked to Khamenei's death has been made public, so Medvedev's assertion remains an unverified claim rather than an established fact.
Iran Strike Deepens Anxiety Over Vladimir Putin, Trump and a Wider War
The joint US‑Israel strikes on Saturday killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and immediately raised fears of a chain reaction neither Washington nor Tehran can fully control. According to the Express, Israel has continued to hit targets in and around Tehran in the days since, fuelling concern that Iran could retaliate not only in the region but against Western allies further afield.
Medvedev used the moment to paint a broader historical picture, in a way that implicitly aligns Russia with Iran against the US. 'The peacekeeper is at it again. The talks with Iran were just a cover. Everyone knew that,' he claimed, suggesting recent diplomatic contacts were essentially window‑dressing.
The peacekeeper is at it again. The talks with Iran were just a cover. Everyone knew that. So who has more patience to wait for the enemy’s sorry end now? The US is just 249 years old. The Persian Empire was founded over 2500 years ago. Let’s see what happens in 100 years or so…
— Dmitry Medvedev (@MedvedevRussiaE) February 28, 2026
Dimitri Simes, an American political commentator with longstanding links to Russia, argued that US actions under Trump had in effect widened Moscow's options. 'Estonia is waging war against us,' he claimed, without providing evidence of direct Estonian attacks.
Simes added, 'I think we should give it some thought that Mr. Trump unwittingly created political and psychological opportunities for us, he untied our hands for our Supreme Commander in chief to do whatever he finds appropriate to do for the nation's security.'
It is a revealing line. Both Simes and Medvedev present Trump's posture on Iran as reckless, yet simultaneously useful to Vladimir Putin by normalising escalation and blurring red lines.
None of this makes World War 3 inevitable, and much of the commentary emerging from Moscow and aligned pundits is plainly designed to intimidate as much as to inform. But when a former Russian president talks so casually about a 'global catastrophe,' and couples it with a fresh war in the Middle East and thinly veiled threats towards Europe, it is hard to dismiss the warning entirely out of hand.
