A Russian propaganda channel closely aligned with the Kremlin has aired a simulation of a nuclear strike on London, claiming the attack would result in hundreds of thousands of deaths and two million casualties.
The broadcast, made by the Tsargrad TV channel on its Telegram platform, is part of the latest wave of nuclear threats from Russia.
Tsargrad is owned by Konstantin Malofeev, a Russian oligarch with strong ties to President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church.
The four-minute video outlines the purported effects of a 750-kiloton nuclear detonation over Westminster, in the heart of the U.K.’s capital. The narrator describes the immediate devastation, predicting that areas within a 5-kilometer radius, including Camden, Kensington, and Brixton, would suffer the most severe destruction.
“Upon detonation, a fireball as hot as the sun rapidly expands, reaching a radius of 950 meters. Anything trapped inside this fireball is instantly vaporized,” the narrator states, adding that those affected “won’t feel a thing” because the explosion will take place too quickly for the human nerve response to kick in.
“Within the blast radius, the death toll could exceed 250,000 people, with a further 600,000 suffering serious injuries,” the narrator adds. In addition, the simulation claims that over 450,000 more would succumb to third-degree burns, debris-related injuries, and radiation sickness, bringing the total death toll to approximately 850,000.
The video further projects that over one million individuals would experience long-term trauma, with many of these injuries proving fatal in the days and weeks following the attack.
“In time, about 100,000 more will be added to the death toll,” they add.
The video, originally released three months ago, has been recirculated at a time of heightened tensions between Russia and Western nations to coincide with the U.K.’s ongoing deliberations over supplying Ukraine with Storm Shadow missiles, which would enable Kyiv to strike targets deep within Russian territory. The broadcast appears to be an attempt by Russian state-affiliated media to exert psychological pressure on British policymakers as they consider further military aid to Ukraine.
The release of the simulation comes amid other provocative scenarios, including a recent depiction of a hypothetical NATO nuclear strike on Russia. According to estimates from this separate simulation widely shared on social media, such an attack could lead to 45.3 million deaths across Russia.
