According to a prominent Kremlin propagandist, the most recent aggressive statement from Russia’s state-run media during the ongoing conflict in Ukraine claims that Russia could destroy the United States in “one hour.”
“We are the only country in the world that can destroy the United States in one hour,” Margarita Simonyan, editor of the Russian state-backed broadcaster, RT, said in a clip of a Russian state television show shared online by the X account, @NOELreports. The airtime of the footage is unclear. For comment, Newsweek has emailed the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Inflammatory programming is a common occurrence on Russian state media, which has often hinted at a nuclear showdown with the United States—a crucial ally of Ukraine in its conflict with Russia. There has been little hope for an end to the war or a reconciliation between Moscow and Washington during the nearly two years of hostilities. The United States and other nations that have pledged military aid to Ukraine have expressed alarm over the potential escalation of the war in eastern Europe and Moscow’s often angry response to such announcements.
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Not long after annexing the southern and eastern Ukrainian provinces of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia in the fall of 2022, the Kremlin claimed the seized areas were part of Moscow’s nuclear arsenal. The majority of the fighting on the front lines occurs in these four areas. Russian state television presented a list of U.S. military facilities that Moscow intended to target in a nuclear attack in 2019, before the full-scale conflict broke out.
Russia could destroy the United States’ east and west coastlines with only four missiles, according to a Russian politician who appeared on state TV in May 2022. Midway through 2023, a Russian political analyst also warned that the United States could find itself “in the crosshairs” of a nuclear-armed confrontation in Ukraine.
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Vladimir Solovyov, a prominent personality in Kremlin-sponsored media and a state TV host, has previously stated that Russia ought to attack NATO’s headquarters because the alliance has backed Ukraine’s military campaign. An all-out war would break out if this were to happen.
Midway through January, Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president and deputy chairman of Russia’s security council, warned that the Kremlin may respond nuclearly if the Ukrainians attacked Russian missile launch facilities with weapons supplied by the United States or NATO. Nearly 90% of the world’s nuclear weapons are in the hands of the United States and Russia. In its pursuit of common ground, Newsweek is devoted to questioning established knowledge and making connections.