- A Russian propagandist showed a simulation of how the UK might meet its end in a nuclear strike.
- "Just one launch, Boris, and England is gone … Why play with us?" he said on a state broadcast.
- The simulation involved a nuclear attack being delivered either by air or sea.
A Russian propagandist has presented on state TV a simulation of a hypothetical nuclear strike that would wipe out the UK and Ireland.
Dmitry Kiselyov, a propaganda figure allied with Russian President Vladimir Putin, was seen in a May 1 broadcast of "News of the World" show narrating how the UK might be destroyed by a nuclear strike delivered either by air or sea.
"Just one launch, Boris, and England is gone," Kiselyov said over a computer-generated simulation, referring to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. "Once and for all. Why play with us?"
"It actually seems like they're raving on the British Isles. Why threaten never-ending Russia with nuclear weapons when you're on an island, which, you know, is so small?" Kiselyov said. He added that "just one Sarmat missile" would be "sufficient to sink it once and for all."
Another way to "put England onto the seabed" would be to use Russia's "Poseidon" underwater drone, Kiselyov noted.
"It approaches the target at a one-kilometer depth at 200 kilometers per hour. There is no way to stop this underwater drone. The warhead on it is up to 100 megatons," he claimed.
Kiselyov then posited that the "explosion of this thermonuclear torpedo" off the UK's coast would raise a tsunami up to 500 meters high.
"Such a water squall is also a carrier of extreme doses of radiation," he said. At the same time, the simulation showed a green "wave" representing radioactive material washing over a map of the UK and Ireland.
"Having passed over the British Isles, it will turn what may be left of them into a radioactive desert, unfit for anything for a long time," Kiselyov said.
John Everard, the UK's former ambassador to Belarus, told RTE that he did not believe Russia had a weapon that could wipe out the UK and Ireland, per the graphic on Russian TV.
"I would urge everybody just to keep calm. By all means, if you feel strongly about it, make your things clear to the Russians. But can we please remember this is just a television mock-up," Everard said, per the outlet.
"The Russians do not have this weapon. I'll say that again, they do not have this weapon," he added, per RTE.
Johnson met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv in April and promised the UK would send armored vehicles and anti-ship missiles to aid it in its fight against the Russians. In the same month, Johnson also said that some Ukrainian troops are being trained in the UK to use those armored vehicles.
Last week, Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said the possibility of nuclear conflict breaking out due to the war in Ukraine was "serious" and "real." In 2018, Putin also threatened to unleash nuclear weapons if the country were attacked.