President Zelensky warns ‘we must prepare’ for Russian nuclear attack

Russia is willing to use nuclear weapons to bring a catastrophic end to its invasion of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky warned last night – as he urged the world to ‘prepare’ for the worst by stocking up on anti-radiation medicine and building air raid shelters. 

The comedian-turned-war time leader made the doomsday warning during an interview with national media, before sharing the clip via his Telegram channel.

He made a similar announcement on Friday, when he said it could not be ruled out that desperate Russian dictator Vladimir Putin would use tactical nukes, as his war against Ukraine continues to stall.

The Russian strongman ramped up his offensive today, taking revenge on Ukraine for the downing of his Moskva warship on Thursday, by mercilessly shelling eight towns including Kyiv, Kharkiv and Lviv.

Elsewhere, a second British fighter was paraded on TV after being captured by Russian forces in Mariupol, while Russia lost its eighth top general in the latest blow to Putin’s botched war.

It comes after Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told CNN in a recent interview that Moscow would use a nuclear weapon on Ukraine in the case of an ‘existential threat’, while Russian military doctrine includes the ‘escalate to de-escalate’ principle of launching a small nuke to regain the initiative in war.

Zelensky said tonight: ‘We shouldn’t wait for the moment when Russia decides to use nuclear weapons… We must prepare for that.’

Anti-radiation medicine and air raid shelters would be needed, he said, adding that the Russians ‘can use any weapon, I’m convinced of it’.

The interview was broadcast by six Ukrainian news websites.

It came after a tough day of shelling from Russian forces as they sought revenge over the sinking of the Moskva flagship, which is believed to have seen most of the roughly 500 crew perish – although 54 were rescued by a Turkish vessel, according to Lithuanian authorities.

It represented Russia’s biggest single naval loss since 1945 – although Russia last night broadcast footage claiming the sailors were safe and well.

Satellite images released Saturday showed the pride of Putin’s Black Sea Fleet burning while other vessels are scrambled to rescue those onboard before it sank.

Radar satellite imagery of the northern Black Sea on April 13 appears to pinpoint the Soviet-era Moskva warship, which Ukraine said was struck by two Neptune cruise missiles fired by one of its batteries near the port city of Odesa. Other vessels are also seen in attendance, with reports suggesting they are rescue vessels.

Naval News found the Moskva in satellite imagery that employed synthetic aperture radar (SAR), technology that can ‘see’ through clouds. The satellite which took the image passed over the area at around 6.30pm local time on Wednesday, the publication said.

It pinpointed the coordinates of a ship matching the Russian vessel and its dire situation to 45°10’43.39″N, 30°55’30.54″E – a position east of Snake Island in the Black Sea, 80 nautical miles from Odesa and 50 nautical miles away from the closest stretch of Ukrainian coastline.

‘Based on analysis by multiple people, we are confident that this shows Moskva’s final hours,’ Naval News said in its report.

The sinking this week sparked a number of ‘revenge attacks’ by Putin’s forces yesterday.

Darnyts’kyi, a suburb in south Kyiv, was among the first to be hit before dawn, when a tank repair factory was blown up, killing one.

Four cruise missiles were then fired on Lviv, which Ukraine intelligence says were shot down before they could inflict carnage.

But another Ukrainian was killed and 18 injured when a warship-launched missile rocked Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city.

There was also a missile blitz on the port city of Mykolaiv, where a military vehicle workshop was destroyed, according to Russia, as well as intense shelling in Donbas, Mariupol and Luhansk, which is set to be the focus of Putin’s fresh offensive.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said between 2,500 and 3,000 Ukrainian troops had died in the war, with 10,000 injured.

The United Nations said it had confirmed the deaths of 1,982 Ukrainian civilians, but that figure does not include those killed in blockaded cities such as Mariupol.

It comes as a second British fighter was captured in the besieged city before being paraded on TV on Saturday.

Ex-British Army soldier Shaun Pinner, 48, was known to have been serving as a ‘contract soldier’ with Kyiv‘s forces fighting off the Russian invasion.

Looking clean-shaven with no visible wounds, he said on the broadcast: ‘I am Shaun Pinner. I am a citizen of the United Kingdom. I was captured in Mariupol.

‘I am part of 36th brigade, 1st Battalion Ukrainian Marine. I was fighting in Mariupol for five to six weeks and now I am in the Donetsk People’s Republic.’

His capture comes after Russia seized 28-year-old former care worker Aiden Aslin on Tuesday. He had also been fighting in Ukraine. There is concern for his safety amid fears that he could treated as a spy by the Kremlin. 

Pinner was shown on a military TV channel linked to war journalist Andrey Rudenko.

He reportedly told the Russians that ‘he doesn’t want war and wants to go home’.

Pinner now faces interrogation by the Russian Investigative Committee, it was announced yesterday.

He was described as ‘an English mercenary who served in the 36th brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Marines as a stormtrooper and is now in captivity.

‘This is the second Englishman caught in Mariupol,’ the TV report added.

His fate in the hands of the Russians and the separatist authorities in Donetsk remains uncertain.

Meanwhile, Russia lost its eighth general Saturday since the start of the invasion.  

Major General Vladimir Frolov, deputy commander of the 8th Guards Combined Arms unit, was given a military funeral in St Petersburg yesterday.

It’s not known how or where he died, but the timing of his funeral suggests Frolov was killed in the past few days.

His 8th Combined Arms Army was fighting in Kherson, near Crimea last month when commander Andrei Mordvichev was killed.

Frolov ‘sacrificed his life so that children, women and the elderly in Donbas would not hear bombs exploding again’, the St Petersburg governor said as his friend was laid to rest.

The general was from a military family and ‘died the death of the brave in battle against Ukrainian nationalists’, Alexander Beglov added.

He was ‘a true patriot, a brave and courageous man’ who ‘honestly and to the end fulfilled his military and human duty.

‘People will not forget their heroes. Eternal memory to him.’

Russia also lost its 34th colonel of the war, tank battalion commander Miras Bashakov, according to reports yesterday.

He became the 42nd high-ranking officer known to have died in a war that has haemorrhaged Putin’s top brass.

The scale of the death toll invalidates Putin’s claim that his ‘special military operation’ is going according to plan.

It came after Zelensky had warned on Friday that the world should be worried about the threat Putin poses as he becomes increasingly desperate, echoing comments made by CIA director William Burns.

Mr Burns said Thursday that Russia’s battlefield setbacks raised the risk that Putin could deploy a tactical or low-yield nuclear weapon.

It came after the Kremlin said it had placed Russian nuclear forces on high alert shortly after the assault began on February 24, although the US says it has not seen any sign of unusual nuclear movements.

US President Joe Biden is ‘deeply concerned about avoiding a third world war, about avoiding a threshold in which nuclear conflict becomes possible,’ said Burns.

Zelensky reportedly personally asked President Biden to designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism – a move with substantial implications for trade and sanctions.

Biden did not commit on the subject, sources told the Washington Post.

Such a designation would lead to economic sanctions on nations that continue to do business with Russia, as well as freezing Russian assets in the US.

He spoke a day after Burns issued his warning in a speech April 14, in which he said: ‘Given the potential desperation of President Putin and the Russian leadership, given the setbacks that they’ve faced so far, militarily, none of us can take lightly the threat posed by a potential resort to tactical nuclear weapons or low-yield nuclear weapons.’

US officials have long warned that Putin could resort to increasingly reckless actions, particularly after major setbacks in its invasion, including the failure to take Kyiv or decapitate the regime, substantial troop losses and destruction of heavy armour.

The US this week said it was not able to confirm Ukrainian claims that a Russian drone had dropped a chemical weapon on the besieged city of Mariupol due to distance from the alleged event.

The Azov regiment said a ‘poisonous substance of unknown origin’ was released on Monday.

Russia warned of ‘unpredictable consequences’ after the U.S. announced the latest in a series of aid packages for Ukraine – this time including helicopters, 155 mm howitzer long-range artillery, and Switchblade drones as part of the $800 million effort.

Russia’s invasion, which began in late February, has already brought fears of a nuclear accident, after Russian troops seized and then later abandoned the Chernobyl nuclear plant after holding Ukrainian plant workers hostage for weeks.

Russian forces also fired on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.

And there are concerns Russia’s Black Sea flagship, the Moskva, could have been carrying nuclear warheads when it was sunk this week.

The Soviet-era guided missile cruiser, sank near the port of Sevastopol on Thursday after Ukraine said it hit the ship with two cruise missiles. Moscow claims it was due to a fire on board, and says it sank in part due to ‘stormy sea conditions.’

Pentagon officials said Friday the US assessment is that Ukrainian forces struck the ship with two Neptune missiles.

Russia then launched a series of cruise missile strikes on Ukraine overnight in revenge for the sinking – saying it struck a factory near Kyiv that made the weapons used against Moskva.

The strikes illustrated how Moscow can still launch rocket attacks on Ukraine even after withdrawing its forces that had sought to encircle Kyiv.

Mykhailo Samus, director of a Lviv-based military think-tank; Andriy Klymenko, editor of Black Sea News; and Ukrainian newspaper Defense Express all warned that the Moskva could have been carrying two nuclear warheads designed to be fitted to its P-1000 ‘carrier killer’ missiles.

If true, the loss of the warheads into the Black Sea could spark a ‘Broken Arrow’ incident – American military slang for potentially lethal accidents involving nuclear weapons.

‘On board the Moskva could be nuclear warheads – two units,’ Samus said, while Klymenko called on other Black Sea nations – Turkey, Romania, Georgia, and Bulgaria – to insist on an explanation.

‘Where are these warheads? Where were they when the ammunition exploded,’ he asked.