Russia accuses West of launching ‘total hybrid war’ after threatening to nuke UK and Finland ‘in SECONDS’

RUSSIA has accused the West of launching a "total hybrid war" against it - after threatening to nuke the UK and Finland in "seconds".

The claim from the country's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov comes after Finland applied to join NATO - a move Vladimir Putin described as a "mistake".

In a speech to mark the 80th day of since Russia invaded Ukraine, Lavrov attempted to portray Russia as the target, not the perpetrator, of aggression.

He pointed to the barrage of sanctions imposed by the West against Moscow.

"The collective West has declared total hybrid war on us and it is hard to predict how long all this will last but it is clear the consequences will be felt by everyone, without exception," he said.

"We did everything to avoid a direct clash - but now that the challenge has been thrown down, we of course accept it. We are no strangers to sanctions: they were almost always there in one form or another."

It comes as senior Russian politician Aleksey Zhuravlyov threatened to nuke Britain with its Satan-2 hypersonic missile in 200 seconds and obliterate Finland in just ten.

Zhuravlyov, 59, deputy chairman of the Russian parliament’s defence committee, said in an interview it was “absolutely legitimate” for Russia to “question the existence” of Finland.

He was asked if Russia now needed to station its nuclear missiles including the Sarmat – known in the West as the Satan-2 – on the border with its neighbour.

“What for? We don't need to,” he replied.

“We can hit with a Sarmat from Siberia, and even reach the UK. And if we strike from Kaliningrad the hypersonic's reaching time is 200 seconds - so go ahead, guys.”

He said other types of missiles stationed on the Finnish border “will reach Finland in 20 seconds, or even 10 seconds”.

In response to Finland's decision to join NATO, Russia also cut off electricity supplies.

Putin told his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinisto on Saturday that Finland scrapping its military neutrality would be a "mistake", the Kremlin said.

"Putin stressed that the end of the traditional policy of military neutrality would be a mistake since there is no threat to Finland's security," the Kremlin said in a statement.

Zhuravlyov threats come after Russian state TV threatened to drown the UK under a radioactive tsunami in a bizarre propaganda video.

In the chilling broadcast a presenter also showed how the Satan 2 nuclear missile could also annihilate Britain.

Dmitry Kiselyov heralded Russia’s second option to “plunge Britain into the depths of the sea" with its “underwater robotic drone Poseidon”.

In a chilling graphic he warned the missile would raise a giant tsunami wave up to 1,640ft high.

He later predicted the surging water would contain “high doses of radiation” turning what is left of Britain into a “radioactive desert”.

The threat was stemmed from the baseless premise perpetrated by the Russian state media and that Boris Johnson had threatened to carry out a nuclear strike on Russia without consulting NATO.

The Sarmat hypersonic 208-ton ’Satan-2’ intercontinental ballistic missile has a speed of 15,880mph and is claimed by the Kremlin leader to be “unstoppable”.

Russia successfully launched the missile earlier this month with Putin warning the test was "food for thought for those who try to threaten Russia".

A video showed the killer missile being launched from an underground silo, triggering an enormous fireball.

It travelled almost the entire length of Russia - almost 3,600 miles - in around 15 minutes and landed at Kura Missile Test Range on the Kamchatka Peninsula.

The bombs are 1,000 times more powerful than those dropped by the US on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan during World War Two.

The threat comes amid claims by Ukraine's spy chief that a coup  to boot "cancer-stricken" Vladimir Putin from power is already underway.

Major General Kyrylo Budanov, 36, believes the tyrant's calamitous war in Ukraine will hit a "breaking point" in summer and be over before the end of the year.

Russia's forces have continued to take pounding in the Ukraine war.

Putin's troops have failed two more attempts to cross a river in Ukraine after 73 vehicles were blown up in a fierce battle - leaving a tank graveyard in the mud.