Russia would be able to destroy the U.S. in “one hour,” a prominent Kremlin propagandist has said, in the latest bellicose threat from the country’s state-controlled media as the war in Ukraine rages on.
“We are the only country in the world that can destroy the United States in one hour,” Margarita Simonyan, the editor of the Russian state-backed broadcaster, RT, said in a clip of a Russian state television broadcast posted online by X account, @NOELreports.
It is not clear when the clip was aired. Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Foreign Ministry for comment via email.
NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA/AFP via Getty Images
Russian state television frequently broadcasts inflammatory content and has repeatedly alluded to a nuclear confrontation with the U.S., a key ally of Ukraine in its war against Russia. Relations between Washington and Moscow have been strained throughout the nearly two years of war, with few prospects for an end to the conflict or a rapprochement.
The U.S. and other countries providing arms to Ukraine have been concerned by the possibility of escalating the war in eastern Europe, and the often irate reaction from Moscow to new military aid pledges.
In fall 2022, shortly after Russia annexed the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions of southern and eastern Ukraine, the Kremlin said the territories fell under Moscow’s nuclear arsenal. The four regions are where the bulk of front-line clashes take place.
In 2019—ahead of the full-scale war breaking out—Russian state television broadcast a list of U.S. military facilities it said Moscow would target in a nuclear strike.
In May 2022, a Russian politician appearing on state media said Russia would need just four missiles to wipe out the East and West coasts of the U.S. A Russian political commentator also said in mid-2023 that the U.S. could be caught “in the crosshairs” of the war in Ukraine, should it escalate to a nuclear conflict.
State TV host Vladimir Solovyov, one of the most well-known figures in Kremlin-backed media, said earlier this month that Russia should strike the headquarters of NATO, which has supported Ukraine’s war effort. Such a move would spark a far wider war.
In mid-January, former Russian President and deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, said that Ukrainian attacks on missile launch sites within Russian territory with U.S. or NATO-supplied weapons could provoke a nuclear response from the Kremlin.
Russia and the U.S. collectively possess around 90 percent of the world’s warheads.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.