A close ally of Vladimir Putin has demanded Russia must "strike Britain, harshly and mercilessly", vowing to erase the UK "off the face of the earth".
Solovyov's televised threat
In a recent televised broadcast shared by monitoring group Russian Media Monitor, Pro-Kremlin TV host Vladimir Solovyov declared Russia should unleash strikes on Britain and Finland - a staunch ally of Kyiv. Notorious for his inflammatory rhetoric, delivered nightly on state-aligned broadcaster Rossiya-1, the close ally to Putin gave exact details on what weapons he believes Moscow should strike Britain with.
He said: "There is no need to storm every house. We should erase all of it off the face of the earth with thermobaric weapons or anything else. Erase everything off the face of the earth."
Questioning the Kremlin's targets
The Russian propagandist went on to question where the Kremlin wants to teach Britain a lesson. He said: "Strike Finland, harshly and mercilessly. Do we want the British to understand something? Strike Britain, harshly and mercilessly."
This comes after Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned last week Russia could strike targets in the UK. She said: "We have repeatedly warned that any British military installations and equipment in Ukraine and beyond its borders could be targeted in response to Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory carried out using British weapons."
Finnish president's stance
Alexander Stubb, President of Finland, approved Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory, including on e-commerce warehouses. Asked about Stubb's comments, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said they had surprised Moscow and accused the Finnish president, along with Prime Minister Andy Burnham, of wanting the war in Ukraine to continue.
"This evokes no other reaction apart from surprise given that just a few weeks earlier the Finnish President had spoken of the need to normalise relations with Russia sooner or later. But now we see that escalatory rhetoric has prevailed after all," Peskov told reporters on a conference call.
"Mr Stubb is also a prominent representative of the 'party of war' alongside the British prime minister. They are deceiving their voters by claiming that it is possible to defeat Russia - it's a huge deception - and they appear to be refusing to heed the realities on the ground," said Peskov.
Former diplomat's warning
Last week Russia's former deputy foreign minister, Andrei Fedorov, said he could not "100% exclude" the prospect of "semi-military" action on Britain. Speaking on BBC Newsnight as Andy Burnham travelled to Ukraine for his first trip to Kyiv, Mr Fedorov said: "Sooner or later, there might be not only verbal, but maybe some visible reaction from Russia towards the UK."
