When news broke the U.S. was finalizing plans to send the Patriot air defense system to Ukraine, Russia responded as it often does. Multiple Russian leaders warned of dire consequences, and Vladimir Putin started rattling Russia’s nuclear saber.
On Wednesday, Russia’s Ministry of Defense released a video showing a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) being installed in a missile silo launch site. The Yars rocket can carry up to six nuclear warheads, each with a 500-kiloton capacity. While the Yars is not the fastest rocket in Russia’s arsenal, it does have a range of 7500 miles, meaning it is certainly capable of striking the whole of Europe and the U.S. mainland.
On Thursday, the Ministry released a second video of another Yars ICBM being loaded into a silo. Both nuclear-capable weapons were installed at the Kozelsk military compound, about 130 miles from Moscow. A Russian colonel overseeing the operations said the complicated technological operations took a few hours.
Vladimir Putin often touts Russia’s nuclear capabilities as a means of deterring Western action. He showed off a Yars rocket in October during the Grom nuclear drills.
In November, Chinese President Xi Jinping, one of Putin’s few remaining allies, condemned the use of nuclear threats and urged a return to diplomacy. The Kremlin and Russian state media, however, seem undeterred.
While the world learned about the Yars ICBMs Russia was preparing, a former Russian general was calling for a nuclear strike on London. Appearing on state-sponsored media, General Andrey Gurulev said Russia should prioritize striking London over D.C. because it’s “right next door.” Gurulev said Russia shouldn’t be embarrassed to say it would launch nuclear weapons on the West, adding “a strike on London would be a first and last warning to Washington.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
