Russia threatens Britain with nuclear annihilation over NATO warplane melee. world | news

While the dictator was talking “peace” to Donald Trump’s emissaries in the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin’s mouthpieces issued terrifying threats to destroy Britain with nuclear missiles. Moscow demonstrated a simultaneous show of force by forcing NATO to send warplanes to escort Russian Tu-22M3 strategic bombers patrolling over the Baltic Sea.

Nearly four hours of late-night “peace talks” involving Putin and Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner ended with the Kremlin ruling that Kiev was unlikely to end the war in Ukraine without surrendering the Donbass region. While face-to-face talks between Russian, Ukrainian, and US officials will go ahead on Friday and Saturday in Abu Dhabi, the Russian junta has shown no signs of compromising on its goal of dividing Ukraine for the sake of peace.

State-funded Russian TV apparently threatened a nuclear attack that would “cease Britain out of existence” while Kremlin talks were ongoing. Putin adviser Sergei Karaganov, known as Professor Doomsday, told the audience, “One of the targets, at least, should be Britain.

“And we need to be prepared, and the British need to know that we have the capability to carry out a disarming and decapitating attack.

“We can deliver it, but there is a caveat: if even a single weapon from any of them reaches Russia, it will trigger a response.”

“Well, what’s left, if anything is left, will strike the cities, and Britain will cease to exist.

“This is a perfectly normal strategy, which should be made absolutely clear and communicated to our British…enemies.”

His words mocked efforts to secure a peace deal in Ukraine that leaves Volodymyr Zelensky’s country as a viable state.

Putin’s chief TV propagandist, Vladimir Solovyov, repeated his demand to land the untested high-speed underwater nuclear-capable drone Poseidon on Britain, plunging the country into a tidal wave.

“I see that in the European region there are two countries which have nuclear weapons; these are Britain and France…

“And given the traditional Russophobia of the British, I do not rule out the possibility that at the first opportunity, they will supply Ukraine with dirty nuclear bombs or components for tactical nuclear weapons.

“They are already supplying everything they can and will try to attack.

“So, I feel like England is a much more systematic enemy of ours.

“That’s probably why I’ll attack there first.”

After Britain was submerged, “the main concern is that our ships do not scrape the bottom near Big Ben.”

Russian footage shows Tu-22M3 long-range strategic bombers conducting “scheduled” patrols over “neutral waters” of the Baltic Sea.

A significant part of Putin’s nuclear strike arsenal – the hulking Tupolevs —was accompanied by Russian Su-35S and Su-30SM fighters.

Moscow acknowledged that NATO aircraft were deployed to monitor the flights.

“On some legs of the route, long-range bombers were accompanied by fighters from foreign states,” it said in a statement.

The Tu-22M3 flights were characterised as “scheduled”—but the timing came when Trump’s envoys were in Moscow for talks with Putin, and the route over the Baltic was close to Russian borders with several border states.

Putin’s ally Yuri Ushakov showed no sign of an imminent peace after the Kremlin talks.

The war supporter said, “As Vladimir Putin stressed, we are sincerely interested in resolving the Ukrainian crisis by political and diplomatic means.

“But until this aim is achieved, Russia will continue to relentlessly pursue the goals set for special military operations, especially on the battlefield, where the Russian armed forces hold the strategic initiative.”

He warned, “Without resolving the territorial issue according to the formula agreed in Anchorage, there is no hope of achieving a long-term solution.”

Moscow says this undisclosed territorial understanding, made during the Putin-Trump meeting in Anchorage in August 2025, refers to Ukraine ceding all the territory in Donbass – the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which Russia has not been able to fully invade after years of fighting.

Putin is sending his GRU military intelligence chief, Admiral Igor Kostyukov, to lead the Russian side in talks in Abu Dhabi today, after being briefed by the dictator on the limits of his authority.

“It was agreed that today, Friday, January 23, the first meeting of the trilateral working group on security issues—representing Russia, the United States, and Ukraine— will be held in Abu Dhabi,” Ushakov said.

“At the same time, the heads of the bilateral group on economic matters—Kirill Dmitriev and Steve Witkoff—will also meet in Abu Dhabi. This is a bilateral group, meaning Russia and the United States.

“Our security negotiation group has already been formed and will depart for the Emirates in the coming hours.

“It consists of representatives of the leadership of the Ministry of Defence headed by Admiral Kostyukov, Chief of the Main Directorate of the General Staff [GRU].

“And I will say that our delegation has received specific instructions from the President of Russia to take into account all the details of today’s negotiations with the Americans.”