Russia should have dropped a nuclear bomb on London while so many world leaders were at the Queen's funeral, a leading Kremlin propagandist has suggested.
Olga Skabeyeva, nicknamed Putin's 'Iron Doll', made the claim on a Moscow TV talk show in response to guest Andrey Gurulev, an MP who branded Britain, "the root of all evil". Skabeyeva, who is married to a Russian politician, was speaking with guests hours after the Queen's funeral about when and where her country could use its nuclear capability after setbacks in its invasion of Ukraine.
Gurulev, a retired general, dismissed claims Russia would strike Ukraine, saying: "We still have to live over there in Ukraine. We have plenty of targets. Ramstein [airbase in Germany] is a good fat one, but it could wait. Why would we bomb Ukraine or Germany when there is Britain - the root of evil?"
Skabeyeva replied: "We should have done it today, all the best people are [in Britain] for the funeral. God forgive me."
Gurulev said the UK could be 'bled white' with just a small number of Russian strikes, adding: "When Britain is turned into a Martian wasteland, what will NATO's Article 5 [defending collective security] be about? Defending the Martian wasteland? There will be nothing left there. An unshakable island - it will be shakeable."
Following Ukraine's forces reclaiming previously occupied territory including Kharkiv, Russian state media has struggled to explain the setback. Commentators in Moscow argue that NATO forces are directly involved in the fight, which has led to increased calls for Russia to strike back at the alliance.
Rose Gottemoeller, Nato deputy secretary general from 2016 to 2019, said the Russians may "strike back in really unpredictable ways". This could include firing a nuclear weapon into the Black Sea or at a Ukrainian military base as a demonstration of might.
She told the BBC that Russia is unlikely to use long-range nuclear weapons of the kind that could hit Britain or the US, but would hope to deter Ukraine's western allies from supporting its war effort. She added: 'I stress that if [the Russians] do go down that route then we should not respond in a nuclear way. [We] should bring our other considerable capacities to bear, whether that be a cyber response or conventional [weapons] response."
She said that western military aid and training to Ukraine should continue, but that diplomatic channels should be kept open to the Kremlin. "If there is a move towards weapons of mass destruction, and I have seen no indication so far that there is, but if there is then we need to get it out there and say to the Russians, 'No impunity here'," she added.
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