The chilling threats come ahead of the first trilateral face-to-face talks involving Russian, Ukrainian and US officials in Abu Dhabi later today.
Putin’s mouthpieces are sending threats to Britain (Image: Getty)
Vladimir Putin’s mouthpieces issued horrific threats to destroy Britain with nuclear missiles at the same time the dictator was talking “peace” to Donald Trump’s envoys in the Kremlin. Moscow staged a simultaneous show of strength by forcing NATO to scramble warplanes to escort Russian Tu-22M3 strategic bombers, which patrolled over the Baltic Sea.
Almost four hours of late-night “peace talks” involving Putin and Trump emissaries Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner ended with the Kremlin ruling out ending the war in Ukraine without Kyiv surrendering the Donbas region. While face-to-face talks involving Russian, Ukrainian and US officials will go ahead on Friday and Saturday in Abu Dhabi, the Russian ruler shows no sign of compromise on his aim of dismembering Ukraine as the price of peace.
State-funded Russian TV made explicit nuclear attack threats that Britain “will simply cease to exist” even as the Kremlin talks were getting underway. Putin advisor Sergei Karaganov, known as Professor Doomsday, told viewers: “One of the targets should be, at least, Britain.
“And we need to be prepared, and the British need to know that we have the capability to deliver a disarming and decapitating strike.
“We can deliver it, but with a warning, of course, that if even one warhead from any of them reaches Russia.
“Well, from what remains, if anything remains, then the strike will be on cities and Britain will simply cease to exist.
“This is a completely normal strategy, which should be absolutely obvious and communicated to our British…enemies.”
His words made a mockery of attempts to secure a peace deal in Ukraine that leaves Volodymyr Zelensky’s country as a viable state.
Putin’s leading TV propagandist, Vladimir Solovyov, repeated his demand to unleash the untested high-speed underwater nuclear-capable drone Poseidon on Britain, sinking the country under a tidal wave.
“I see that there are two countries that have nuclear weapons on European territory, these are Britain and France…
“And given the traditional Russophobia of the English, I do not rule out the possibility that at the first opportunity, they will supply either components for a dirty nuclear bomb or tactical nuclear weapons to Ukraine.
“They are already supplying everything they can and will try to strike.
“Therefore, it seems to me that England is a much more systematic enemy of ours.
“That is why I would perhaps strike there first.”
After Britain was underwater, “the main thing is that our ships don’t scrape the bottom with Big Ben”.
Vladimir Soloyov (Image: YouTube)
Russian footage showed Tu-22M3 long-range strategic bombers carrying out a “scheduled” patrol over the “neutral waters” of the Baltic Sea.
The hulking Tupolevs – a key part of Putin’s nuclear strike armoury – were accompanied by Russian Su-35S and Su-30SM fighters.
Moscow admitted that NATO planes were scrambled to monitor the flights.
“At certain stages of the route, the long-range bombers were accompanied by fighters of foreign states,” said a statement.
The Tu-22M3 flights were portrayed as “scheduled” – but the timing came as Trump’s envoys were in Moscow for talks with Putin, and the route over the Baltic was close to multiple frontline states close to Russian borders.
Following the Kremlin talks, Putin’s aide Yury Ushakov gave no sense of a quick peace.
The war hawk said: “We, as Vladimir Putin emphasised, are sincerely interested in resolving the Ukrainian crisis through political and diplomatic means.
“But until this is achieved, Russia will continue to consistently pursue the goals set for the special military operation, specifically on the battlefield, where the Russian Armed Forces hold the strategic initiative.”
He warned: “Without resolving the territorial issue according to the formula agreed upon in Anchorage, there is no hope of achieving a long-term settlement.”
These undisclosed territorial understandings that Moscow says were reached during the Putin–Trump meeting in Anchorage in August 2025 appear to refer to Ukraine ceding the Donbas – all of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which Russia has not been able to totally invade in years of fighting.
Putin is sending his GRU military intelligence chief, Admiral Igor Kostyukov, to lead the Russian side in talks today in Abu Dhabi – after the dictator briefed him on how far he could go.
“It was agreed that today, Friday, January 23, the first meeting of the trilateral working group on security issues—representatives of Russia, the United States, and Ukraine—will take place in Abu Dhabi,” said Ushakov.
“At the same time, the heads of the bilateral group on economic affairs—Kirill Dmitriev and Steve Witkoff—will also meet in Abu Dhabi. This is a bilateral group, meaning Russia and the United States.
“Our security negotiating group has already been formed and will depart for the Emirates in the coming hours.
“It includes representatives of the Ministry of Defence leadership, led by Admiral Kostyukov, Chief of the Main Directorate of the General Staff [GRU].
“And I will say that our delegation just received specific instructions from the President of Russia, taking into account all the details of today’s conversation with the Americans.”
