Russian state TV has accused the Biden administration of trying to push the Kremlin into starting a nuclear war with the West.
A video of Russian TV host Alexei Gudoshnikov’s remarks was shared on Twitter.
Gudoshnikov’s remarks come as Russia prepares to station nuclear weapons in Belarus, marking the first time the Kremlin has done this in decades.
While discussing the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, Gudoshnikov said: “What if they not only don’t mind but actually want us to conduct a strike?
“Let me explain why… I think hundreds of millions of Americans don’t want this. But there are certain parts of the elites who know that any missile, except for the hypersonic one, would take 30 minutes to get there.”
“They could go underground and wait it out during several strikes. After that, they’ll talk about Russia’s terrible savagery and about what a horrible genocide it was,” Gudoshnikov adds.
“Everyone else will die, except for Joe Biden, everyone else will die, except for Zelensky,” the host says in hypothetical event of a nuclear war.
“Everyone else will die, except for the governments in London or other NATO countries because they will have time to leave.”
“It can be done in several minutes and they will have 20-30 minutes to spare. That’s why I suspect that these guys are ready for this turn of events as well. They understand this very well and they are ready,” the TV host continues.
“Perhaps this looks like madness but on the other hand, based on their statements, this is exactly what it looks like.”
In the wake of nuclear war fears, Putin defended the decision to move nuclear weapons into Belarus.
Belarus has remained an ally of Russia despite facing global condemnation for invading Ukraine in 2022.
Putin said the two nations have been working together in a broadcast on Saturday.
“I would like to highlight that, without breaking our international commitments on not spreading nuclear weapons, we already helped our Belarus colleagues to re-equip their planes. Planes of Belarus Air Forces. Ten planes are ready for using this type of weapon,” Putin said.
“We already transferred to Belarus our well-known and very effective Iskander complex, and it can also be a carrier,” the Russian leader added.
“They [the U.S.] have long deployed their tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of their allied countries,” Putin said of the movement of nuclear weapons.”
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