Russian TV Threatens West: 'Three Missiles Enough to End This Civilization'

On Sunday, a prominent Kremlin propagandist issued a stark warning to the West following the U.S. announcement that Washington plans to deploy developmental hypersonic weapons in Europe.

Evgeny Popov, the host of the state TV Russia-1 program 60 Minutes, hinted at potential strikes against several NATO member nations, including the U.S., the U.K., France, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Latvia, and Estonia.

Relations between Washington and Moscow have become increasingly strained since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Russian officials and guests on Russia's state TV frequently call for strikes on U.S. soil in response to the Biden administration's support and weapon supplies to Kyiv.

Popov's comments followed an announcement from the U.S. and Germany at a NATO summit in Washington, D.C., last week, stating that the U.S. would deploy longer-range missiles in Germany by 2026.

"It's not hard to guess the geography of the response if the White House's short press release becomes reality," Popov remarked while displaying a map of Europe with potential Russian targets, as reported by the independent news outlet Agentstvo on Monday. "Almost all European capitals are under threat," he added, specifying that Russia could target U.S. military bases in Germany and British ones as well.

He emphasized the particular vulnerability of Britain, describing it as Russia's traditional enemy. "Britain is in the most vulnerable position. In principle, three missiles are enough to end this civilization," Popov stated.

The Kremlin reiterated its warnings against the deployment of U.S. missiles in Germany in comments published on Saturday.

"We have enough capacity to contain these missiles, but the potential victims are the capitals of these countries," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Pavel Zarubin, a journalist at the All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VGTRK).

In a joint statement with Germany, the White House indicated that the U.S. would begin "episodic deployments of the long-range fires capabilities of its Multi-Domain Task Force in Germany in 2026, as part of planning for enduring stationing of these capabilities in the future."

The White House further explained that these fully developed conventional long-range fire units would include SM-6, Tomahawk, and developmental hypersonic weapons, which possess significantly longer ranges than current land-based systems in Europe.

The U.S. and Germany emphasized that exercising these "advanced capabilities" would "demonstrate the United States' commitment to NATO and its contributions to European integrated deterrence."