Russia: We can nuke UK and Ireland into the depths of the sea
Propaganda chief ramps up rhetoric with chilling warning
A KREMLIN-backed TV host has urged Vladimir Putin to drown the ‘British Isles’ out of existence with a nuclear strike that would create a radioactive tsunami.
Dmitry Kiselyov, who is known as ‘Putin’s mouthpiece’, made the threat during prime-time viewing.
The propagandist said Russia’s Poseidon nuclear weapon would trigger a 500metre radioactive tidal wave, effectively wiping these islands off the face of the earth.
Showing the devastating effects of a nuclear bomb exploding off the coast of Donegal, he said Ireland and the UK would be completely destroyed. His remarks came after days of worsening rhetoric from Russia, and US officials saying they want to ‘weaken’
‘Extremely high doses of radiation’
Russia – statements interpreted by Moscow as posing a threat to the country. The programme was showing the options available to the Russian military if the Ukraine conflict escalates.
Mr Kiselyov told his viewers the Poseidon could carry a 100megaton warhead, several times the strength of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.
The programme depicted the drone being launched and then showed the explosion, about 300 kilometres north of the Donegal coast. Mr Kiselyov said the explosion would ‘raise a radioactive tidal wave which would plunge Britain to the depths of the oceans’.
Appearing in front of a background graphic showing the UK and Ireland being erased from the map, he said: ‘This tidal wave is also a carrier of extremely high doses of radiation. Having passed over the British Isles, it will turn whatever is left of them into radioactive desert, unusable for anything. How do you like that prospect?’
Mr Kiselyov justified his threat by falsely claiming British prime minister Boris Johnson had threatened to launch a nuclear attack against Russia.
The exchanges echo the collision between London and Moscow just days into the war. On February 28, Putin put Russia’s nuclear forces on high alert after comments by British foreign secretary Liz Truss.
The Kremlin said her remarks about possible ‘clashes’ between Nato and Russia over Ukraine were ‘unacceptable’.
Moscow claims the Poseidon is unstoppable by current nuclear defences, and could be used to destroy coastal cities or blow up aircraft carriers and their battle groups.
Russia has stepped up its nuclear threats in recent days as its army has made frustratingly slow progress in pushing back Ukrainian troops in the east of the country.
But yesterday, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said that his country is committed to stopping a nuclear war, saying the Western media ‘misrepresent Russian threats’. Mr Lavrov said: ‘Russia has never interrupted efforts to reach agreements that guarantee that a nuclear war never develops.’ sean.o’driscoll@dailymail.ie