Nuclear War Will Happen in Europe, Russian TV Pundit Warns

Nuclear strikes by Russia on European targets are inevitable, a political expert warned in a fiery rant on Russian state television.

"We want to change the future of Europe. You've f***** up the present, you gentlemen Europeans," political scientist Dmitry Yevstafyev said on Vladimir Solovyov's politics show, which aired on the Rossiya 1 TV channel on Thursday.

The warning marks the latest escalation in the war of words between Moscow and Ukraine's Western allies, ongoing since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

"You've chosen these morons to lead you. But we are trying to change your future, which [currently] means 200-250 million dead or maimed Europeans. That's the price of nuclear war."

Yevstafyev specifically referenced Paris, saying that the French capital would be targeted in the hypothetical attack, and adding that Americans would be "fine."

A video clip of the speech was shared by Ukrainian internal affairs adviser Anton Gerashchenko on X, formerly Twitter.

"And by the way, Americans are fine, they are OK," Yevstafyev said on Thursday. "Well, maybe some cloud will reach, OK. Or maybe it won't maybe in the ocean, and so on.

"But unfortunately, all of our attempts to turn the Europeans' brains on are unsuccessful. But I think we should put aside our false sensitivity that there will be no European nuclear war. No, there will be. And we have to state it directly.

"And we should explicitly name the European cities that will be destroyed. And how many casualties there will be after five or six nuclear missiles hit Paris. And so on."

Yevstafyev then went on to suggest a system to threaten European citizens directly, perhaps via mail.

"For example, I would do the following: Every European should receive a postcard from us in their mailbox—a postcard with his house, NATO military facility, the place where there will be a strike and what will be left of their house," he said. "And we have to make every European citizen understand that they can die too. Because for the last 60 years the European citizen has lived in a complete sense of immortality."

This marks the latest case of escalating nuclear rhetoric emanating from Russian state media and officials. Russian state TV hosts and pundits regularly issue nuclear warnings to the West, threatening strikes on key European and U.S. capitals and "decision-making centers."

In September 2023, Igor Korotchenko, another Kremlin propagandist, issued a stark nuclear threat against the West with regards to the war in Ukraine, claiming that the U.S. could be in direct danger from Russia's nuclear arsenal.

In March 2024, pro-Russian Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk, who was exiled to Russia in 2022 in exchange for Ukrainian prisoners of war, predicted that a nuclear strike will "most likely" be coming as the West continues to "assert its right to global dominance."

Later the same month, a Russian state TV weatherman, Yevgeny Tishkovets, told Solovyov that weather conditions are "ideal" for a nuclear strike on member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

In just over two years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia has outlined numerous red lines, some of which (including the West supplying weapons to Ukraine, and Ukraine's strikes on Russian soil) have since been crossed by Kyiv.

With some NATO members appearing to show increasing willingness for some sort of troop deployment in Ukraine, concern that Russia may expand its war has also risen—fanned by warnings by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his allies.