West should nuke Kremlin if Putin tries to strike Kyiv, Zelensky warns - The Brooklyn Times

newspress-collage-20194262-1666471708498

THE West should nuke Russia if Putin tries to launch a nuclear strike on Kyiv, President Zelensky warned as the Kremlin steps up its bombardment of Ukraine.

The war-time President said the West should strike Russian “decision-making” centres and send Putin a clear message.

President Zelensky called on the West to nuke Russia if it launched a nuclear assault on UkraineCredit: YouTube/Office of the President of Ukraine

Putin could launch a warning nuke into the Black Sea, officials claimCredit: Getty

Moscow has stepped up bombardments on Ukrainian infrastructure and homesCredit: Getty

“Nobody knows what Russia will do tomorrow but we do know what the world had to do,” President Zelensky told Canadian broadcaster CBC.

“As to nuclear weapons, it doesn’t matter is Ukraine is a NATO member is not a NATO member, [the war] is happening in Europe, on the European continent. Nobody is allowed to simply blackmail [us] as a terrorist.

“The one who orders to kill people, if you do that, you have to know that in a second, regardless of the result of your hit, there will be a hit at your decision-making centre.”

Analysts feared Putin would detonate a warhead in the Black Sea, potentially unleashing tsunamis and a poisonous gas cloud.

China’s 'unwell' ex-leader ERASED from internet after he's dragged away from Xi

Vlad seen with ‘track marks from IVs on hand’ as rumours swirl he has cancer

It was also claimed plans were under way to test fire a tactical nuke in the Arctic before launching one on the battlefield in Ukraine.

Recent days have seen a number of Notam messages – short notice warnings to aircraft – and Russian navigation warnings indicating live fire drills in the Barents Sea near the border with Norway.

It comes as pro-Russian authorities on Saturday urged residents in the annexed Kherson region to evacuate “immediately” in the face of Kyiv’s advancing counter-offensive.

It comes as President Zelensky said Russia launched 36 rockets overnight in a “massive attack” on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, causing power outages across the country.

Kyiv’s forces have been advancing along the west bank of the Dnieper river, towards Kherson.

It was the first major city to fall to Moscow’s troops. Retaking it would be a key prize in Ukraine’s counter-offensive.

In recent days, Russia has been moving residents in the region — which Moscow claims to have annexed in September — in efforts described as “deportations” by Kyiv.

“Due to the tense situation on the front, the increased danger of mass shelling of the city and the threat of terrorist attacks, all civilians must immediately leave the city and cross to the left bank of the Dnieper river,” the region’s pro-Russian authorities said on social media.

Meanwhile more than a million households in Ukraine were left without electricity following Russian strikes on energy facilities across the country, the deputy head of the Ukrainian presidency Kyrylo Tymoshenko said on Saturday.

Fresh Russian strikes targeted energy infrastructure in Ukraine’s west, the national operator said earlier, with officials in several regions of the war-scarred country reporting power outages.

Power outages were reported among others in the northwestern Volyn region, parts of the southwestern Odessa region and the city of Khmelnitskyi in western Ukraine with local authorities reiterating calls to reduce energy use.

According to Ukraine’s air force, Moscow’s troops on Saturday fired 17 cruise missiles by aircraft from southern Russia and at least 16 Kalibr cruise missiles from ships in the Black Sea.

Ukraine’s authorities have called on residents to reduce power consumption amid the attacks with some parts of Ukraine reducing their electricity use by up to 20 percent, according to Ukrenergo.