The Independent 25 June 2022 - by Emily Atkinson
London will be the first strategic Nato target to be hit by Russian missiles should World War Three erupt, a close ally of president Vladimir Putin has claimed.
Speaking on Russian state TV Andrey Gurulyov, an MP sat on Moscow’s defence committee, described a full-scale invasion of Nato’s Baltic state members.
Gurulyov, a former military commander and member of the pro-Putin United Russia party, said: “We’ll destroy the entire group of enemy’s space satellites during the first air operation.
“No-one will care if they are American or British, we would see them all as NATO.
“Second, we’ll mitigate the entire system of anti-missile defence, everywhere and 100 per cent. Third, we certainly won’t start from Warsaw, Paris or Berlin. The first to be hit will be London.
“It’s crystal clear that the threat to the world comes from the Anglo-Saxons.”
He said an invasion was the only way to prevent the West from blockading Kaliningrad - a Russian semi-exclave between Lithuania and Poland.
Gurulyov went on to say western Europe would be “cut off from power supplies”, which he said would also be destroyed, and “immobilised.”
“In the third stage, I shall see what the USA will tell Western Europe on continuing their fight in the cold, without food and electricity,” he continued. “I wonder how they (the US) will manage to stay aside.”
“This is the rough plan, and I deliberately leave out certain moments because they are not to be discussed on TV.”
The Putin ally’s threats come as Russia’s war entered its fifth month, leading to concerns of ‘fatigue’ over the ongoing and deadly conflict.
On Saturday Boris Johnson warned pressure will grow to coerce the Ukrainians to a “bad peace” due to economic stresses sparked by the conflict.
Asked at the High Commissioner’s residence in Kigali what he meant by concerns of Ukraine fatigue, Mr Johnson said: “I know it is tough. I know it is tough in the UK. I know the cost of food has gone up. Everybody is looking at this and too many countries are saying this is a European war that is unnecessary.
“It is an economic problem that we don’t need and so the pressure will grow to encourage, coerce maybe the Ukrainians to a bad peace.
“I think the risk is that people will fail to see that it is vital to stand up against aggression ... if Putin gets away with aggression in Ukraine, if he gets away with the naked conquest of other people’s territory, then the read across for every single country here is absolutely dramatic.
“The collapse of the intentional system and failure to stand up for international borders, they get that. And it would be a long term economic disaster.”
