A top Vladimir Putin -supporting MP has shocked the world after saying it would be “important” for Russia if China shot down Nancy Pelosi's plane.
The sinister claim came from Alexey Zhuravlyov, the deputy head of the parliamentary defence committee, who also vowed that Putin would “wipe out Ukraine from the Earth”.
The remarks came after United States House Speaker Nancy Pelosi defied Chinese war threats and visited Taiwan.
The third most senior figure in the American government landed in Taiwan on Tuesday after China said the US would “pay the price” if she sets foot on the disputed island.
Beijing views Taiwan as part of its territory in a breakaway province and Chinese President Xi Jinping is desperate to seize the land, saying he would annexe it by force if necessary.
In 1949, Taiwan and China separated after the Communists won a civil war on the mainland.
Then in 2016, Beijing cut off all contact with Taiwan’s government after Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen refused to endorse Bejing’s claim that the island and mainland together make up a single Chinese nation.
He told the 60 Minutes show on state channel Rossiya 1 that such action against the US House Speaker’s aircraft after her visit to disputed Taiwan would open a second front in Vladimir Putin’s conflict with the West.
Pelosi said she visited Taiwan to show the world they are unafraid of standing up to autocratic states.
“It would be important for us if this plane [Nancy Pelosi’s] was either squeezed out [intercepted] or was shot down,” Zhuravlyov said.
Once Pelosi left the island, China did not hang back in beginning its aggressions.
On Thursday, China's People's Liberation Army launched 11 of its world-ending Dongfeng missiles - some of which could wipe out London in 30 minutes - into the waters surrounding the self-ruled island.
China says its bombardment of the tiny island is a response to an "enemy situation" and that it will not hold back in continuing to pummel its waters for the next several days.
Chilling footage on social media showed the PLA's rockets roaring into the skies over Fujian, a coastal city in China less than 150km from Taiwan.
Zhuravlyov continued: “For us, opening a second front is good. No matter how the situation with the island develops, we will anyway win. The whole world understands that the only country which can resist the US is Russia.
"We're leaders of the alternative world. We can discuss GDP, economics, whatever. But for 30 years no one on the planet could afford even a small war conflict without the United States' permission. Today it's clear: we will wipe out Ukraine from the Earth.
"You should be very naive thinking that Russia will lose in this conflict. Some strange people say that.”
An unprecedented live-fire military drill was launched by China in six areas that ring Taiwan on Thursday, just one day after Pelosi visited.
