Russian nuclear drills 'were rehearsal for destroying UK and US'

Britain and the US would be obliterated by ‘massive nuclear strikes’ rehearsed yesterday under Putin’s watchful eye, Russian military expert reveals

• Vladimir Putin oversaw huge Russian nuclear drills involving missiles, planes and submarines yesterday 
• Drills were a rehearsal for a massive strike against the US and UK in case they nuke Russia first, expert said 
• Colonel Igor Korotchenko told Russian state media the strikes would wipe Britain and America off the map
• Tests were carried out after Putin threatened the West with his nuclear arsenal for supporting Ukraine 

Huge Russian nuclear drills watched over by Vladimir Putin were a rehearsal for wiping Britain and America off the map, a state media stooge declared last night.

Colonel Igor Korotchenko, editor-in-chief of Russia’s National Defence magazine, said yesterday’s missile, submarine and bomber drills were to demonstrate his country’s ability to carry out an overwhelming retaliatory strike if it were ever to come under attack using nukes.

Mr Korotchenko made it clear who the drills were aimed at, telling state TV: ‘Who could launch a first nuclear strike on Russia? The US and the UK. I don’t know if [French President] Macron is someone who would join this adventure… It is very important that we have shown who our main enemies are and what awaits them.’

If the strike were carried out for real, Mr Korotchenko boasted, then Britain would be submerged beneath the Atlantic Ocean and instead of the United States there would be a new naval strait named after Joseph Stalin. 

‘There is no compromise,’ he added. ‘The signal has been sent [to the US and UK]. This [should make them] sober up and clear their minds. This is not nuclear blackmail. This is what we would really do [if] we get hit.’

Russia rehearsed its response to a nuclear attack yesterday in an exercise involving nuclear submarines, strategic bombers and ballistic missiles at a time when tensions are high over a ‘dirty bomb’ allegation it has made against Ukraine

A Russian nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea launched a Sineva ICBM at the Kura firing range on the far-eastern Kamchatka Peninsula

Russia’s Tu-95MS strategic bomber is seen landing during exercises held by the country’s strategic nuclear forces at an unknown location

Vladimir Putin watches over the drills – a yearly preparedness exercise dubbed ‘Grom’ or ‘Thunder’ – from Russia’s nuclear command centre joined by his security chiefs in a virtual meeting

Colonel Igor Korotchenko, editor-in-chief of Russia’s National Defence magazine, told state TV last night that the drill was to rehearse the destruction of the UK and US

Putin watched over Wednesday’s drills – a yearly preparedness exercise dubbed ‘Grom’ or ‘Thunder’ – from Russia’s nuclear command centre, which Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said were designed to rehearse a ‘massive strike’.

The drills involved the test-firing of a Yars land-based intercontinental ballistic missile from the northern Plesetsk launch site and the launch of a Sineva ICBM by a Russian nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea, just ten miles away from the shores of NATO member Norway.

As part of the exercise, Tu-95 strategic bombers also launched cruise missiles at practice targets.

Footage shows a large nuclear submarine in the water during the simulation that featured multiple drills.

The large team were filmed making preparations for the simulation nuclear strikes and following launch protocol as they took part in the annual exercise.

Clips also showed them flicking switches, running up stairs, speaking to each other on radios and monitoring the missiles before they were fired. 

As the test began, the Russian Sineva was seen soaring through the air from the water and disappearing into the clouds.

Meanwhile the Yars later shot into the air after switches were flicked and a sound indicated that it was about to go off.

After it was launched, a huge ball of flames engulfed the sky and left a cloud of smoke in its wake as a loud bang was also heard. 

The drills were monitored remotely by Putin, who also spoke to some of his military chiefs after the drills. 

The manoeuvres followed Putin’s warning about his readiness to use ‘all means available’ to fend off attacks on Russia’s territory in a reference to the country’s nuclear arsenals.

The Kremlin said that all tasks set for the exercise were fulfilled and all the missiles that were test-fired reached their designated targets.

Such drills involving land, sea and air components have taken place on an annual basis to train the country’s nuclear forces and demonstrate their readiness.

The Biden administration said on Tuesday that Russia gave notice it intended to stage routine drills of its nuclear capabilities.

The Pentagon and US State Department said Russia had complied with the terms of the last US-Russia arms control agreement in notifying Washington of the upcoming tests. 

The Russian exercise comes amid Moscow’s warnings of a purported Ukrainian plot to detonate a radioactive device commonly known as a ‘dirty bomb’ in a false flag attack to blame Russia. 

Ukraine and its allies strongly reject the allegation, and today NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said: ‘This is absurd. Allies reject this blatantly false accusation, and Russia must not use false pretexts to escalate the war further.’

NATO’s Stoltenberg underlined that the 30-nation military organisation ‘will not be intimidated or deterred from supporting Ukraine’s right to self-defence for as long as it takes.’

There are fears that Russia is pushing the claims because that it what the Kremlin is planning to use the deadly device that uses explosives to scatter radioactive waste.

Putin told a meeting of intelligence officials from the CIS group of ex-Soviet countries that the West was ‘pumping’ Ukraine with heavy weapons, adding: ‘There are also plans to use a so-called ‘dirty bomb’ for provocations.’

Shoigu today called his counterparts from India and China to convey Moscow’s concern about the purported Ukrainian plan.

Putin later told a meeting of intelligence officials from ex-Soviet countries that the potential for conflict in the world remained high

The Kremlin said in a statement that all tasks set for the exercise were fulfilled and all the missiles that were test-fired reached their designated targets

He voiced Moscow’s concern about ‘possible Ukrainian provocations involving a ‘dirty bomb” in the calls with his Indian counterpart, Rajnath Singh, and China’s Wei Fenghe, according to the Russian Defence Ministry.

The conversations followed Shoigu’s calls with British, French, Turkish and U.S. counterparts Sunday in which he made the same claim. Britain, France, and the United States rejected that claim as ‘transparently false.’

Poland’s government said it is preparing for the Kremlin’s potential use of nuclear or chemical weapons after its warnings on Ukraine.

Marcin Ociepa told Polish state broadcaster TVP1 the government believes Putin ‘may reach for nuclear or chemical weapons’ because his country’s forces are struggling in Ukraine and that Poland ‘must be prepared for all scenarios.’

Polish President Andrzej Duda, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, national security ministers and leaders of Poland’s armed forces met Tuesday to discuss aid for Ukraine and the course of the war, including Russia’s nuclear threats.

The head of Poland’s National Security Bureau, Jacek Siewiera, said after the meeting that the leaders discussed the risks and consequences associated with the use of any type of nuclear weapons in light of the changing characteristics of the war as well as the approaching winter. 

Despite the Western dismissal of the Russian claims, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted that ‘we have the information that there is an ongoing preparation in Ukraine for such a terror attack.’

‘We will continue to energetically inform the global community about what we know to persuade it to take action to prevent such irresponsible action by the regime in Kyiv,’ Peskov told reporters.

Moscow also took its accusation to the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday, voicing its concerns during a closed-door meeting.

A destroyed car is seen in the town of Balakliia, liberated by the Ukrainian Armed Forces

A view of the damaged gas station after the Russian missile attacks in Dnipro, Ukraine

Russia has not made public the evidence that it asserts it has, but says it has prepared its troops to work under conditions of nuclear contamination.

Its deputy U.N. ambassador, Dmitry Polyansky, told reporters after the Council meeting that it had passed intelligence information to Western counterparts with the ‘necessary level of clearance’.

Britain’s Deputy U.N. Ambassador, James Kariuki, called the allegations ‘pure Russian misinformation of the kind we’ve seen many times before’.

Russia targeted more than 40 villages around Ukraine over the past day, Ukrainian officials said Wednesday, killing at least two people and sustaining the terror that forces people into air raid shelters each night.

Russian forces launched five rockets, 30 air strikes and more than 100 multiple-launch rocket system attacks on Ukrainian targets, the Ukrainian armed forces general staff said.

A Ukrainian official reported Wednesday that a Russian strike hit a gas station in the city of Dnipro, killing two people, including a pregnant woman. 

The governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, Valentyn Reznichenko, said four people wounded were hospitalized.

Mykolaiv, a southern port city near the war’s front line, is among the places where residents have lined up to receive rations of bread and canned food as increases in food prices and losses of income add to the war-time burdens of low-income households in Ukraine.

Several buildings and neighborhoods were struck in Mykolaiv on Tuesday, though it was still unclear if there were any casualties, according to local authorities.

Missiles continued early Wednesday morning.

The sole food distribution point in Mykolaiv allows each person to receive free bread once every three days. Many must walk long distances to collect the essential food items for their family.

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