Vladimir Putin‘s top TV propagandist has called for London to be ‘turned to dust’ after reports said Ukraine was ‘prepared’ to use British missiles to strike Crimea.
Last night’s show featured discussion on a nightly show on channel Russia 1, hosted by chief propagandist Vladimir Solovyov saying Kyiv said it would use the Storm Shadow missile if the UK was willing to provide it.
At one point host Vladimir Solovyov bizarrely raised his hand as if to cast a spell, then stared manically at the camera and said: ‘London will turn to dust! To dust.’
According to The Sun, ad Vlad’s mouthpiece, his face twisted with rage, then switches to English and begins shouting: ‘Burn in hell!’ and ‘Flames!’
Solovyov was responding to a panellist who made a wildly exaggerated claim regarding the possibility of the British Government supplying Kyiv with Harpoon anti-ship missiles or surface-to-air Storm Shadow missiles.
He fumed: ‘The British press is saying ‘We’ll give them hell! I’m quoting verbatim from their most popular paper The Sun.
‘They all regard this as completely fine – ‘Russians can and need to be killed’. They’re saying that constantly.
‘There’s one problem with Russians. They won’t give up as easily as that.’
The clip and its translation was tweeted by BBC Monitoring, which regularly posts on pro-Kremlin propaganda shows, per The Sun.
This comes after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak held talks with Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelensky about the UK’s ability to provide long-range missiles to Kyiv, which it currently does not have.
The Prime Minister said these were ‘going to make a big difference’ in Ukraine’s fightback against Russia’s invasion.
Discussions are now said to be under way over whether they should include Harpoon missiles (which can reach up to 150 miles) or Storm Shadow missiles (350 miles).
Speaking on Thursday, Mr Zelensky called on modern weapons to be supplied quickly to his forces, saying that Russia’s new spring offensive had already begun.
He also ruled out giving up any Ukrainian land as part of any peace deal with Russia.
‘Russian attacks are already happening from several directions,’ he told the BBC.
‘Of course, modern weapons speed up peace. Weapons are the only language Russia understands,’ he said.
Nato allies – including the UK, Germany and the US – recently promised to send main battle tanks to Ukraine.
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