The comment was particularly striking because Mr Medvedev has never been seen as a hawk.
He served as a stand-in president for Mr Putin from 2008 to 2012 and his term was marked by a rapprochement with the United States that saw him sharing hamburgers with Barack Obama and getting a private tour of Apple’s headquarters from Steve Jobs.
In recent years, however, he has begun to voice increasingly hawkish views in line with Mr Putin’s.
The Russian leader’s reported outbursts stand in sharp contrast to the dark, depressed mood expressed by other key figures of his government.
Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, economic adviser Maxim Oreshkin and central bank chief Elvira Nabiullina, once lauded in the West for their prudent fiscal and financial policies, appeared shell-shocked when they appeared in public for the first time since the invasion on Monday to discuss measures to salvage Russia’s economy.
Ms Nabiullina, who is known for wearing different brooches to hint at possible interest rate hikes, wore funereal black.
On the sixth day of the invasion, Russian state television persisted in describing the war as a “special military operation” in eastern Ukraine.
It reported Ukrainian separatist advances against government troops in the east in detail but made no mention of devastating air strikes on Kharkiv and Kyiv.
In a bid to justify invading a country where millions of Russians have friends and family, the government has ordered schools to hold special lessons to convince teenagers the war is just.
Several Russian media outlets published lesson plans distributed by the education ministry. In Moscow, a PowerPoint presentation described Russia’s war against Ukraine as a “peace-maker operation” and suggested Nato and Ukraine had been plotting to destroy Russia, according to the Media Zona website.
Schools were also ordered to show teenagers the address in which Mr Putin effectively declared war on Ukraine and debate such questions as “Can one describe Russia’s actions as an older sibling helping a younger one?”
