Amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, Russian pundit Stanislav Krapivnik recently said Moscow is “already at war with” the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), adding that it should retaliate by striking cities like New York and London with a nuclear weapon.
Krapivnik, a Russian-American and former U.S. Army officer who defected to Russia in the ’90s, repeatedly referred to the U.S. as the enemy of Russia, accusing it of wanting “to destroy the Russian people” during an appearance on a Russian media program hosted by Roman Guz.
On Saturday, Julia Davis, founder of the watchdog group Russian Media Monitor, shared a clip to X, formerly Twitter, of Krapivnik’s interview, in which he repeatedly dehumanized Americans and said, “These are not people, these are animals.” Russian Media Monitor provided English captions of the Russian language interview.
Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has created the largest military conflict and the largest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II. The U.S., the United Kingdom, and other NATO members have extended military aid and diplomatic support to Ukraine.
“If we want to end this war, we need to completely destroy Ukraine’s Armed Forces. Not defeat, but total destruction. Not taking them prisoner. There should be corpses, mountains of corpses!” Krapivnik said during his interview.
He added that Russia is “already at war with NATO…either give them a choice or go ahead and strike.”
On August 6, Ukrainian forces launched a surprise attack on Russia’s Kursk region, successfully pressing into the Kursk and Belgorod area over the past two weeks, marking the largest assault on Russian soil since World War II.
The area is home to the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), which is a major electricity producer for Russia. On Saturday, Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova accused Ukrainian forces of preparing to attack the facility.
Ukrainian officials denied the accusation to Reuters, dismissing it as “insane” propaganda.
However, Krapivnik reiterated that idea and said, “This is an attack with nuclear materials, trying to cause a nuclear explosion of the reactor on the territory of Russia.” He added that “this is a direct provocation that warrants wiping Kyiv off the face of the Earth.”
“This effectively crosses the line of tactical nukes. This is open war, and in response, an American city will be wiped off the face of the Earth or there will be a strike on London, based on who armed them,” Krapivnik said, suggesting that “there will be an explosion, and New York will be gone and Washington will be next.”
To summarize Krapivnik’s remarks, Guz asked, “Essentially, there should be a direct threat, straight from the President [Putin], that if something happens, nuclear missiles will fly against Washington and London. Do I understand it correctly?”
Krapivnik replied: “Absolutely, absolutely,” affirming that nuclear weapons should be targeted at the U.S. and U.K.
NewsweekÂhas reached out to the U.S. Department of State, Russia’s foreign ministry, and Ukraine’s foreign ministry for comment via email on Sunday. Newsweek also filed out an online contact form with the U.K’s prime minister’s office for comment on Sunday.
The Russia-Ukraine war has heightened global fears of a potential nuclear conflict, following months of rising tensions and repeated threats from Russia to use nuclear weapons against the U.S. and NATO countries.
Putin has previously approved tactical nuclear weapons drills, and earlier in August,ÂRussia advanced to the third stage, aimed at “preparing units of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation for the combat use of nonstrategic nuclear weapons,” the Russian defense ministry said.
At the beginning of this year, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a nonprofit led by nuclear risk leaders, “once again set the Doomsday Clock at 90 seconds to midnight because humanity continues to face an unprecedented level of danger.”
Russia has an estimated 5,580 nuclear warheads, according to a 2024 report by the Federation of American Scientists, which says the U.S. has 5,044.
