A Russian MP and military veteran has unveiled a plan to paralyze the European continent in one fell swoop by hitting the Netherlands with an atomic bomb.
The chilling threat was made on Russian state television by Lieutenant General Andrei Gurulev – a hardline MP in Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party – in a conversation with leading propagandist Vladimir Soloviev.
He told Russian state television that a nuclear attack would sweep the country by destroying its dams and dikes.
“Somewhere between 50 and 60 percent of Europe’s hydrocarbon reserves are in the Netherlands,” Gurulev explained. ‘Imagine, in the Netherlands, on the coast. The army calls this a big target.…
“We understand very well how we can inflict critically unacceptable damage to bring Europe to its knees.”
The MP’s nuclear saber-rattling comes days after the Netherlands said it would allow the Ukrainian air force to use its 24 F-16 fighter jets to carry out attacks in Russia.
Lieutenant General Andrei Gurulev, 56, returned to Russian television after a six-month absence and proposed dropping an atomic bomb on the Netherlands to bring Europe to its knees
Gurulev told Russian state television that a nuclear attack would engulf the Netherlands by destroying its dams and dikes
The MP’s nuclear saber-rattling comes days after the Netherlands said it would allow the Ukrainian air force to use its 24 F-16 fighter jets to carry out attacks in Russia (Royal Air Force F16 fighter jet is pictured)
A Yars intercontinental ballistic nuclear missile is fired during a training from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in the North Arkhangelsk region, Russia, in this still image from a video released on March 1, 2024
Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren and Romanian Defense Minister Angel Tilvar speak to the media at the European F-16 training center at the 86th Romanian Air Base in Fetesti, Romania, as the Netherlands supplied three F-16 fighter jets for Ukraine, April 17, 2024
Lieutenant General Gurulev said: ‘This is a matter of one day. With minimal consumption of nuclear weapons. Not only will they blow away all the oil refineries, the Netherlands will also be blown away.
“The dams there are going to collapse all at once, the whole thing… it’s going to be flooded.”
He boasted to Putin propagandist Solovyov: “I tell you one hundred percent that after that everything in Europe will be completely dead.”
Soloviev proposed using Russia’s new Poseidon weapon at a speed of 200 km per hour, an undersea drone with a 100 megaton nuclear warhead.
But Gurulev said that two normal nuclear weapons would destroy the Netherlands.
‘One can be shot, the second will fly. That will be enough.’
He made it clear that such an attack on the Netherlands belonged to the ‘target catalogue’ of the Russian military machine.
The trigger-happy general made his comeback on propaganda TV after an unexplained absence of six months.
Solovyov said: “Let me remind you that the Netherlands is the same country that allowed Ukraine to use F-16s… in our airspace.”
Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren confirmed this last week in an interview with Politico that the Dutch F-16 will indeed be offered to the Ukrainian air force, without restrictions on the way they are used in the war effort.
Ollongren said there was no “Belgian restriction,” referring to Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo’s warning that Kiev will not fly the F-16 jets coming from Belgium into Russian airspace.
Lieutenant General Andrei Gurulev, 56
The F-16 Fighting Falcon is an American single-engine supersonic multirole fighter aircraft, originally developed for the United States Air Force, but used by militaries around the world
A Ukrainian army stands with people next to F-16 fighter jets during an inspection visit by the Ukrainian president to Belgium in an agreement to help Kiev fight the Russian invasion, at the Melsbroek military airport in Steenokkerzeel, northeast of Brussels on May 28 2024
In this photo released by the press service of the Russian Ministry of Defense on Friday, May 17, 2024, a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile launcher is seen during a military exercise in Russia
“We apply the same principle that we have applied to any other delivery of capabilities, which is that once we transfer it to Ukraine, they can use it,” Ollongren said.
“We only ask them to comply with international law and the right to self-defense as enshrined in the UN Charter, which means that they use it to target the military objectives they must pursue in their self-defense,” Ollongren added to it.
The F-16 Fighting Falcon is an American single-engine supersonic multirole fighter jet, originally developed for the United States Air Force, but used by militaries around the world.
While Russian air defenses still pose a significant threat to the F-16, the jets are nonetheless seen as vital to the Ukrainian air force, whose aging fleet is struggling to match the prowess of more capable and modern Russian aircraft.
As of early 2022, Ukraine had 71 Su-27 and MiG-29 fighters, 14 Su-24M bombers and 31 Su-25 attack aircraft, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ annual Military Balance report.
But it is believed that Kiev now has fewer than 78 fighter jets due to losses and maintenance issues.
The F-16s would undoubtedly provide a welcome boost to Ukraine’s air capabilities, but experts have warned that they will require much more maintenance and be “more sensitive” than the Soviet jets that Ukrainian pilots are used to flying.