Deranged Putin ‘practised sinking Britain into the Atlantic and obliterating US’ in nuke drills, claims Russian colonel

VLADIMIR Putin rehearsed wiping Britain and the US off the map in chilling nuke drills, a top Russian military expert has claimed. 

The deranged tyrant watched on as a barrage of ballistic and cruise missiles was fired as Moscow simulated a huge strike on the West.

Colonel Igor Korotchenko, editor-in-chief of Russia’s National Defence magazine, said the exercises were to practice obliterating Britain and the US in retaliatory strikes if Russia was hit by nuclear attacks.

He said the UK would be “swallowed up” by the Atlantic Ocean, while in place of the US would be a “sea strait named after Comrade Stalin”.

Korotchenko told Russian state TV this was the purpose of the “strategic training exercise”, known as “Operation Thunder”, amid boiling tensions over the Ukraine war unleashed by Putin.

He said: “The Russian Minister of Defence (Sergei Shoigu) made this clear.

“The tests were practicing a massive nuclear missile strike in response to a first nuclear attack against Russia.

“Who could launch a first nuclear strike on Russia? The US and the UK.”

Korotchenko – often used as a hardline military pundit on propaganda TV shows – said he doubted French president Emmanuel Macron would attack Russia with nuclear weapons.

He added: “I don’t know if Macron is someone who would join this adventure and has been factored into this scenario. 

“I am not judging, but it is clear that this [the Russian drill] was a deep retaliation scenario.”

“In this regard it is very important that we have shown who our main enemies are and what awaits them,” he said. 

“There is no compromise. The signal has been sent [to the US and UK].”

Propagandist TV anchor Olga ‘Putin’s Iron Doll’ Skabeyeva asked Korotchenko:  “So we have practiced today destroying the United States and once-great Britain, right?”

He replied: “Absolutely right and… it all took place, I emphasise, after a first strike against us.”

Propagandist TV anchor and MP Yevgeny Popov said this was “not insignificant”.

He said: “We would have a sea strait named after Comrade Stalin in place of the United States in North America, and the Atlantic Ocean in place of Great Britain…”

“This (should make them) sober up and clear their minds.

“Once again, this is not nuclear blackmail, no, this is what we would really do (if) we get hit.”

Video released by the Russian-military run Zvezda website of Wednesday’s drills showed armed forces personnel in front of computers launching a Yars ballistic missile.

Other footage showed a Sineva intercontinental ballistic missile being fired from a submarine in the Barents Sea and a TU-95 bomber that launched cruise missiles.

The Kremlin said that all tasks set for the exercise were fulfilled and all the missiles that were test-fired reached their designated targets.

Putin observed the annual exercise remotely as Russia rehearsed its response to a nuclear attack.

It comes after a US official warned of “troubling developments” involving Russia’s nuclear arsenal.

Fears are growing that Putin, 70, could detonate a nuke as Moscow continues to wildly swing its nuclear sabre.

The tyrant is becoming increasingly frustrated as his troops have been hit with a series of disastrous defeats across the frontline in Ukraine.

There are concerns that if Vlad finds himself boxed into a corner, he could resort to using nuclear weapons.

Putin has repeatedly raised the spectre of using the weapons – and it’s feared he could potentially be lining up a test in the Black Sea.