[ad_1]
Russian state media has urged Putin to wipe the UK off the map using his most-powerful nuclear weapons as the despot’s propaganda machine continues to threaten mass death over support for the war in Ukraine.
Dmitry Kiselyov, a man often known as ‘Putin’s mouthpiece’, used his Sunday night show to call for attacks on Britain with a Poseidon underwater drone that he said would trigger a 1,600ft radioactive tidal wave and ‘plunge Britain to the depths of the ocean.’
The drone ‘has capacity for a warhead of up to 100 megatons’, Kiselyov claimed – several thousand times the strength of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima – which would ‘raise a giant wave, a tsunami, up to 1,640ft high’ – enough to reach halfway up Scafell Pike, the tallest point in England.
Speaking against a background graphic showing the UK being erased from the world map, Kiselyov added: ‘This tidal wave is also a carrier of extremely high doses of radiation. Surging over Britain, it will turn whatever is left of them into radioactive desert, unusable for anything. How do you like this prospect?’
Kiselyov also threatened the UK with an attack by Sarmat 2, Russia’s latest nuclear missile which was tested by Putin a fortnight ago, which he claimed could also completely destroy the country with just a single impact.
‘[Their] island is so small that one Sarmat missile is enough to drown it once and for all,’ he said. ‘[It] is capable of destroying an area the size of Texas or England. A single launch, Boris, and there is no England anymore.’
Kiselyov’s remarks follow a pattern that has developed on Russian state media in recent days of threatening Britain with nuclear holocaust, based on the false premise that Boris Johnson has threatened to carry out a nuclear strike on Russia without consulting NATO.
The threats are instead believed to be the result of the UK’s staunch support for Ukraine, which has seen it move further and faster than other European nations in delivering arms to Kyiv to help in the fight against Russia and has seen Mr Johnson twice visit the Ukrainian capital to show his support.
Dmitry Kiselyov, known as ‘Putin’s mouthpiece’, twice threatened to destroy the UK with nukes on his show last night – including with an underwater drone he claimed can cause a radioactive tidal wave
Kiselyov, speaking over a graphic that showed the UK being wiped from the world map (above), said a single Poseidon bomb would be enough to trigger a 1,600ft wave that would turn Britain ‘into a radioactive desert’
Kiselyov also threatened the UK with Russia’s new Sarmart 2 nuclear bomb (pictured during a test last month), claiming that a single missile would be enough to destroy the entire country
Russia has increased the intensity of its nuclear threats in recent days, as its military suffers brutal losses in the Ukraine war (pictured, a Russian soldier mans an armoured vehicle outside the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power in eastern Ukraine)
While Russia has stepped up its nuclear threats in recent days as its army suffers repeated defeats in Ukraine, the UK has dismissed the threats as ‘bravado’ while the US says it has seen no change in the position or readiness of Moscow’s nuclear forces.
It comes as senior officers from MI5 informed the Home Office that the threat of Russian saboteurs entering Britain to carry out attacks on key British infrastructure and target high-profile politicians had increased.
‘There is a serious concern that officers or agents attached to Russia’s security services may attempt to enter the UK and target strategic locations,’ one security source said last week.
Meanwhile, Russian state television earlier this week broadcast a segment which simulated how Putin could launch a three pronged nuclear strike on London, Paris and Berlin, leaving ‘no survivors’.
Hosts on Channel One’s 60 Minutes programme said the three capital cities could be hit within 200 seconds of nuclear missiles being launched, as chairman of the nationalist Rodina party, Aleksey Zhuravlyov, declared: ‘one Sarmat missile and the British Isles will be no more.’
Western leaders have also been warned that infamous ‘troll farms’ are increasingly flooding the internet with pro-Kremlin messaging as part of an information war that Russia is widely judged to have lost so-far after Western support rallied firmly behind Ukraine.
New UK government funded research has revealed Moscow is now conducting a large-scale cyber operation to spread support for the war.
Online operatives were found to be ordering followers to target Western media outlets and politicians including Prime Minister Boris Johnson, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, by posting pro-war comments on their social media accounts.
The social media profiles of bands and musicians including Daft Punk, David Guetta, Tiesto and Rammstein also appear to have been targeted by the disinformation operation, which is being waged by Russia’s infamous ‘troll farms’.
One such troll farm – the ominously-named ‘Cyber Front Z’ – is said to operate out of a rented warehouse in Russia’s second city St. Petersburg, where workers are believed to be paid up to 45,000 roubles (£500) per month to post 200 pro-war and pro-Putin comments per day to platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok.
The group uses messaging app Telegram to encourage Russians citizens to help wage its cyber war, organise targeted social media offensives and parrot Putin’s rhetoric that Russia is freeing Ukraine from the grip of neo-Nazis and fascists.
Researchers say the group seems to have learned from the tactics used by QAnon conspiracy theorists and from the Islamic State terror group, and appears to hire salaried workers while encouraging Russian citizens to join targeted ‘social media attacks’.
Ukrainian servicemen stand in a fox hole during an exercise not far from the second largest Ukrainian city of Kharkiv
Ukrainian troops patrol through defensive trenches on the outskirts of Kharkiv, as Russian forces continue fighting for control of territory to the east of the city
Ukrainian servicemen ride on an armoured presonnel carrier during an exercise near the second-largest city of Kharkiv
A pinned message on the group’s Telegram channel explains to Cyber Front Z’s subscribers how they can help strengthen Russia’s pro-war narrative.
‘Friends, the main weapon of a cyber fighter is information! But for effective actions on the field of information war, efficiency is important, which means you should always have your orders to hand,’ the post reads.
‘Therefore, for your convenience, we will mark our posts with hashtags, each of which will correspond to a specific category. This will allow you to quickly find the information you need on the channel and apply it during the ”battle”.’
The threats have ramped up amid warnings that Putin is preparing to declare all-out war ‘within days’ to enable Russia to launch a general mobilisation after its military took a battering in the early days of the war.
While Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is widely viewed as a war, Putin’s framing of it within Russia as a ‘special military operation’ has thus-far stopped him from conscripting large parts of the population into the military.
Britain’s Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said that the Russian president might use Russia’s victory day parade on May 9 to announce the mass mobilisation of his reserves for a final push in Ukraine.
It was initially thought Putin would try to use the parade to declare ‘victory’ in Ukraine – either by seizing Kyiv or, when that effort failed in March, by seizing Donbas.
But Russia’s troops remain firmly bogged down in Ukraine’s east, making only marginal gains while suffering punishing losses with Russian state media now acknowledging that no victory is likely by May 9.
A Russian military source told the Telegraph: ‘The military are outraged that the blitz on Kyiv has failed.
‘People in the army are seeking payback for failures of the past and they want to go further in Ukraine.’
Earlier this week, the Russian military was said to be furious that Putin had downsized the invasion of Ukraine and called for a new escalation of the conflict.
Speaking on Friday, Mr Wallace said Putin may declare a new war against the world’s ‘Nazis’ at the victory day parade which sees Moscow mark the end of Russia’s involvement in the Second World War.
With Putin’s military having failed in their first wave of military objectives, Moscow has re-focused its efforts on seizing both the east and southern coast of Ukraine.
However, as in the first months of the invasion, Russian forces are being met with heavy Ukrainian resistance from Kyiv’s determined armies.
Russian troops wearing ‘Z’ badges which have become emblematic of Putin’s invasion guard the part of Mariupol, in Ukraine
Russian servicemen guard an area in Berdyansk, in territory under the control of Moscow-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine
Ukrainian servicemen stand in the rubble of an apartment building destroyed in a military strike, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in Kyiv
Some analysts had predicted that Putin wanted to be in a position where he could declare some form of victory on May 9. But with Russia’s victory day parade now less than two weeks away, that is looking less likely.
Instead, Mr Wallace told LBC Radio that Putin could use the occasion to declare a new war on who he would call the world’s Nazis to galvanise his populace in another push against the Ukrainian defenders.
‘I would not be surprised… that he is probably going to declare on May Day that ‘we are now at war with the world’s Nazis and we need to mass mobilise the Russian people’,’ Mr Wallace said on Friday morning.
While several countries, including the UK, mark VE Day – the anniversary of the allied victory over Nazi Germany in the Second World War – on May 8, Russia marks the data on May 9 due to the time difference.
The end of all combat actions came at 23:01 Central European Time on Tuesday May 8, 1945 – which was already May 9 in Soviet Bloc countries, including in Russia.
Mr Sherriff today said Russia was likely to double down on its approach to Ukraine, insisting to its people that it is the right approach.
He told BBC Radio 4: ‘The worst case is war with Russia. By gearing itself up for the worst case, it is most likely to deter Putin because ultimately Putin respects strength.’
Ukraine’s allies have massively stepped up support for Kyiv as fierce fighting rages in the east, with Kyiv’s generals today saying that Russia is suffering ‘colossal’ casualties in the pivotal battle for Donbas.
Oleksiy Arestovych, a Ukrainian secret service veteran-turned presidential adviser, acknowledged his military is suffering ‘serious losses’ on battlefields in the east but insisted that Russia’s casualties are ‘much, much worse’.
Russia is pouring troops into the battle in Donbass in an effort to force a bloody victory having been defeated in its initial aim to storm in Kyiv, topple the government, and install a puppet regime loyal to Moscow.
After it became apparent they did not have sufficient force to take the capital, Russia’s generals yanked their units out, patched them up as best they could, and then threw them back into the fight in Donbas.
They also adapted their tactics – abandoning precision missile strikes and rapid advances which saw them mauled around Kyiv in favour of slow advances behind walls of blanket artillery in similar tactics to WW1 trench warfare.
The move has been met with mixed success. Ukraine has acknowledged losing control of some towns and villages, but has made gains elsewhere in counter-attacks.
[ad_2]
Source link
