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Footage of devastating nuclear explosions were aired during a chilling segment on Russian propaganda TV.
A channel owned by the media wing of Gazprom, the Kremlin-obedient energy giant, showed footage entitled “In anticipation of nuclear conflict – how weapons of mass destruction have become part of the geopolitical game”. The segment showed a number of nuclear explosions and their aftermath, including a giant mushroom cloud and what an atomic blast would look like.
A presenter then appeared alongside a row of old gas masks and protective clothing, The Mirror reports . It comes as a top Putin lieutenant Ramzan Kadyrov called on the Russian leader to consider “using low-yield nuclear weapons” in the border territories of Ukraine.
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Kadyrov said that he believed Russian forces “need to take more drastic measures” against Ukraine . The TV sequence appeared to say that the West should give in to Putin’s demands on Ukraine to diminish the threat of nuclear war.
Vasily Kashin, a military and political analyst at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, said: “We’re in a situation in which superiority in resources and conventional weaponry is on the side of the West. Russia’s power is based on its nuclear arsenal.”
Last week, Putin signed annexation documents to incorporate four areas of Ukraine into Russian territory. But Ukraine mounted a counter-attack just hours later, leading to Russia withdrawing its troops from the city of Lyman as Ukraine declared full control.
Members of the UK military were advised last month that they “must be prepared” for the possibility of being deployed to Ukraine to fight against Russia. Warrant Officer Paul Carney issued the warning six months on from Vladimir Putin’s invasion of the country in February, saying that British troops should “prepare loved ones and families” for their absence, as the Army was “shaping itself to meet the threat from Russia”.