Putin vows to target Europe’s capitals if US deploys missiles to Germany

VLADIMIR Putin has vowed to “target” European capitals in a furious tirade as the US seeks to deploy hypersonic missiles to Germany.

The Cold War-style standoff could spark WW3 as Russia tries to bully the West into backing down.

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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov threatened the citizens of countries which could end up hosting the American missiles.

Peskov said: “We [Russia] have enough capacity to contain these missiles, but the potential victims are the capitals of these countries.”

Putin’s mouthpiece said the missiles created a “paradox” where “Europe is a target for our missiles, our country is a target for US missiles in Europe.”

The missiles, Tomahawk cruise and SM-6s, have significantly longer range than what the US currently has in Europe, the BBC reported.

They had been banned under a 1988 treaty between Russia and the US but Putin violated the agreement in 2014.

American missiles are only supposed to be deployed “episodically” and will arrive in Germany, the only country so far to host them, in 2026.

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said the deployment of long-range US missiles would give Europe the time to develop their own.

He said Europe had a “increasingly serious gap in capability” against what Russia and the US has.

Russia has been using its hypersonic missiles to hammer one European capital already, Kyiv.

Earlier this week when madman Putin bombed a children’s hospital in Kyiv in a shocking “genocidal” attack.

Poland is also considering blowing up Russian missiles that fly over Ukrainian airspace.

Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said the eastern European country was on the “frontline” of the war and Russian bombs flew through its airspace.

Sikorski said: “At this stage, this is an idea.

“Our dilemma is the following. If we shoot them down only when they enter our airspace the debris is a threat to our citizens and to our property.

“And the Ukrainians are saying, ‘Please, we will not mind, do it over our airspace when they’re in imminent danger of crossing into Polish territory.

“To my mind, that’s self-defence but we are exploring the idea.”

Missiles have become an increasingly important part of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with the Kremlin targeting Ukrainian civilian infrastructure.

Britain has also supplied missiles to Ukraine, saying it would be up to Kyiv how it used the UK-supplied weapons.

Storm Shadow missiles have been used by the war-torn nation to bomb inside Russian controlled areas of Ukraine, but not Russia itself yet.

On a May trip to the country, Lord Cameron said: “In terms of what the Ukrainians do, in our view, it is their decision about how to use these weapons.

“They’re defending their country, they were illegally invaded by Putin and they must take those steps.”

PUTIN’S NUCLEAR THREATS

BY Ellie Doughty, Foreign News Reporter

NATO is headed for a nuclear showdown with the rest as Nato could be considering moving nukes to Putin’s doorstep.

Below is a timeline of some of the thinly veiled threats the Kremlin has made against the West since invading Ukraine two years ago.

Feb 24, 2022 – Vladimir Putin: “No matter who tries to stand in our way or all the more so create threats for our country and our people, they must know that Russia will respond immediately, and the consequences will be such as you have never seen in your entire history.”

March 26, 2022 – Putin crony Dmitry Medvedev: “We have a special document on nuclear deterrence. This document clearly indicates the grounds on which the Russian Federation is entitled to use nuclear weapons. … [This includes] when an act of aggression is committed against Russia and its allies.”

April 20, 2022 – Vladimir Putin: “[The new Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads] will force all who are trying to threaten our country in the heat of frenzied, aggressive rhetoric to think twice.”

Feb 29, 2024 – Vladimir Putin: “They must understand that we also have weapons that can hit targets on their territory… All this really threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons and the destruction of civilization. Don’t they get that?”

March 12, 2024 – Vladimir Putin declared that weapons like nukes “exist in order to use them”.

A chilling nuclear war simulator has also revealed how a Russian nuclear strike could trigger a global conflict – killing 35 million people in just a matter of hours.

The model predicts a catastrophic war escalating from an initial Russian nuclear strike, which quickly draws in other powers.

Known as “Plan A”, the four-minute animation aims to highlight the horrific potential consequences of conflict between Russia and NATO countries as all nations would fire strikes against one another.

The model predicts that almost 35 million people would die within hours – many of those in the first 45 minutes.

The trigger-happy tyrant has even started talking about how he could deploy nukes in space, saying that Russia can be “proud” of its work on a “nuclear power plant… for operation in space”.

A bombshell warning from US intelligence in February suggested Vlad could be hoping to arm his existing anti-satellite weapon with nukes and launch it into space.

Last year, Putin was said to be readying a deadly 20,000mph “meteorite” hypersonic missile for combat.

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