In a chilling display of brinkmanship, a Russian television channel with strong ties to President Vladimir Putin has aired a simulation of a nuclear attack on London.
The four-minute video, complete with an English commentary, paints a grim picture of the British capital being decimated by a nuclear strike, resulting in an estimated 850,000 deaths and two million injuries.
According to the Daily Mail, the broadcast is seen as the latest salvo in a campaign designed to dissuade Britain from allowing Ukraine to use Storm Shadow missiles against targets within Russia. Putin's propagandists have repeatedly issued warnings that the Russian leader could resort to nuclear weapons.
The video, aired on Tsargrad's Telegram channel, begins with a chilling proposition: "Imagine for a moment that the unimaginable happens. A nuclear weapon explodes over London. In this documentary, we explore the devastating consequences of this catastrophe." The simulation uses a warhead with a yield of 750 kilotons, described as a "pretty powerful charge."
The commentary details the horrific aftermath of such an attack: "Upon detonation, a fireball as hot as the sun rapidly expands, reaching a radius of 950 metres [1,039 yards]. Anything trapped inside this fireball is instantly vaporised." The simulation places the epicentre of the explosion at Westminster, with the blast radius encompassing the city of London, Camden town, Kensington, and Brixton.
The video's grim narrative continues, stating that "buildings will be destroyed and debris will fill the streets, creating extremely dangerous conditions for everyone in the vicinity." It estimates that the initial death toll could exceed 250,000 people, with around 600,000 injured within a radius of 10 km [6.25 miles]. The radiation from the blast would cause third-degree burns and ignite anything combustible within the radius, including petrol stations, automobiles, power substations, and gas infrastructure.
The video goes on to claim that an additional 450,000 people could die from burns, debris injuries, or radiation sickness, with over a million others left traumatised. "Radiation sickness in particular will take lives days and weeks later. In time, about 100,000 more will be added to the death toll," the commentary warns.
The simulation was first published three months ago but has recently been highlighted by Tsargrad. It further details the potential fallout from such an attack, stating that the shockwave from the blast could shatter windows up to 18 km [11 miles] away, causing additional casualties. Depending on wind patterns, radioactive fallout could spread well beyond the immediate blast zone, potentially affecting areas up to five to 10 km away and causing damage even in regions such as Essex or Surrey.
The video grimly concludes that London is ill-prepared for such a disaster, with eleven of the city's twenty hospitals falling within the blast radius. The remaining hospitals would be overwhelmed by the number of victims, leaving many trapped under rubble with no one to help them.
The broadcast also recalls Putin's 2018 statement that in the event of nuclear war, "We will go to heaven as martyrs, and they [in the West] will simply die, because they will not even have time to repent." Tsargrad added, "The President then warned the West that Russia has its own interests, and that it will defend them by all possible and impossible means."
Tsargrad is controlled by oligarch Konstantin Malofeev, a 50-year-old investment banker and media mogul known as the 'Orthodox Oligarch' due to his links to the Russian church. The video serves as a stark reminder of the catastrophic consequences of nuclear warfare and the precarious balance of power that exists in our world today.
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