Top Kremlin mouthpiece, Margarita Simonyan, suggested“blowing up a nuke over Siberia to scare the West,” amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.
What Happened: Simonyan, who is the editor-in-chief of RT, voiced her thoughts on the ongoing war in Ukraine started by her ally, Vladimir Putin, during a video address on her Telegram channel. The video was shared on X (formerly Twitter) by Russia watcher Julia Davis.
Simonyan began her address by commenting on Russia’s celebration of the “return of our Russian lands to us.” She referred to the territories Moscow claimed to have annexed from Ukraine, which include Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions.
“I am perfectly happy to live at a time when these events are taking place and historical justice is being restored,” she said, adding how Ukrainians, who “are the same as you and me,” spent “30 years in hell,” referring to the time following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
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While expressing satisfaction over the annexation, Simonyan also expressed her “bitterness and regret” over the prolonged and difficult war initiated by Russia. She stressed that the Russian people are “praying, fighting and worrying” for the return of areas like Kherson to Russia.
Simonyan reiterated a common Kremlin narrative that the war is essentially a conflict between the West and Russia, with Ukraine being used as a weapon by the West. She suggested that “a nuclear ultimatum is becoming inevitable” because “they will not back down until they feel a lot of pain.”
She proposed Russia could “conduct a thermonuclear explosion hundreds of kilometers above our own territory somewhere in Siberia,” asserting that it would not affect those on the ground.
“The option is out there and it is the most humane one,” she said.
Why It Matters: Russia’s conflict in Ukraine entered its 589th day on Thursday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in his recent interview, acknowledged some signs of weariness but affirmed Ukraine’s determination to press forward with its counteroffensive initiated in June, Aljazeera reported.
Meanwhile, Moscow announced that it had intercepted and downed 31 drones launched by Kyiv over three southern Russian regions, with no reported casualties or damage.
On the domestic front in the U.S., President Joe Biden expressed concerns about the potential impact of internal strife within the GOP on U.S. assistance to Ukraine, following the abrupt removal of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) from his position. However, Biden expressed confidence that aid to Ukraine would continue without interruption.
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