New nuclear-weapons threats were made on Russian state television, with the head of state-controlled Russia Today (RT) Margarita Simonyan saying on air that the war in Ukraine will either end with Russia’s victory or a catastrophe for all humanity.
“They all believe we’ll lose and the West will win,” Simonyan said. “They say this, oblivious to the fact that it is impossible. It’s just not possible, and it won’t happen. Either this ends badly for humanity as a whole, or we win. There is no other choice.”
It’s not the first time Simonyan has threatened nuclear war on the air. In late April, the editor-in-chief of RT stated that Britain’s support for Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory leaves Moscow with few options other than “complete destruction” of Ukraine and “a nuclear strike.”
There was no evidence that the Kremlin supported the threat made by the journalist on state television at the time. However, Simonyan’s most recent remark comes as the head of Russia’s space agency announced that Moscow will soon have 50 new nuclear missiles.
Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin has warned that dozens of new Sarmat-2 missiles will be deployed by autumn to defend Russia against threats posed by its adversaries.
“All that remains is to advise the aggressors to speak more gently to Russia,” Rogozin said on the Russian television channel Zvezda.
Simonyan stated on Sunday that the schism that has developed between Russia and Western nations as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is irreparable.
“When people ask how long our estrangement from, and confrontation with, the West will last, there is only one answer I can think of: forever. Simply get used to your new life.”
In response to complaints she’s heard about the consequences of the West cutting ties with Russia, including the exclusion of Russian students from studying in Western countries, Simonyan said people should be happy about it.
“This brave new world [the West] is barreling like a runaway train straight to hell that ten years from now you’ll say, ‘Thank you so much that my child never studied in the West and no longer has that option because at least he’s still my child and a decent person.'”
Simonyan herself had the opportunity to study in a Western country, spending 1996 in Bristol, New Hampshire, as part of the US State Department-funded Future Leaders Exchange student exchange program, as noted by Kevin Rothrock, managing editor of Meduza’s English-language edition.
Simonyan can be seen on RT in a previous clip from May 20 that was shared on social media saying that the only reason Russia isn’t using nuclear weapons on Ukraine is that it’s not practical.
“Couldn’t we have dealt with Ukraine in hours, not days, if we had wanted to? But we’re carrying out a special military operation, so it’s not war “Simonyan explained. “We pity all of them over there,” she added, adding that Russian supporters in Ukraine were mixed with anti-Russians who held them as “hostages.” “We can’t separate them, strike some here, some there with Sarmat [missiles].”
