WW3 fears erupt as Putin crony issues chilling nukes warning - 'Good scenario'

Vladimir Putin’s henchmen are chillingly threatening a war lasting 20 years in which his use of nuclear weapons is a "good" scenario. This chilling vision of the future came at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum [SPIEF] — known as the "Russian Davos" — which was hit a day earlier by Ukrainian drone strikes on the city’s oil port and naval base.

Key Putin mouthpieces used the forum to set out an apocalyptic non-stop war scenario fuelled by Russian paranoia over becoming colonised by the West. Oligarch and Putin propagandist Konstantin Malofeev - a major pro-Kremlin media owner - told the forum: "The use of nuclear weapons, we don't consider a worst-case scenario. We consider it a good one."

Professor Andrey Bezrukov, a former Russian SVR intelligence colonel and deep-cover spy in the US, stressed: “We must recognise that for the next few years, maybe a couple of decades, we will be at war.

“It could be a very intense war, like we are now. It could be a creeping war. Even if it spreads to other regions, we'll have two generations that can be considered practically at war. And we need to learn to live with this war.”

Now an academic at Moscow State Institute of International Relations, the career spy said Russia needed to respond to Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service which - allegedly - was allowing Ukraine to strike deep into its regions.

“We weren't prepared for it,” said Bezrukov, unmasked as a Russian agent in the US in 2010 alongside glamour spy Anna Chapman, and returned home in a swap deal. Lacing his comments with conspiracy theories, he warned the West is targeting Russia with “ biowarfare” laboratories creating viruses “that will basically destroy us all”.

The war fever was boosted by Viktor Khrenin, defence minister of autocratic Belarus, warning of the “extremely high” probability of the Ukraine war spilling into a global conflict.

He accused NATO of massing troops near the borders of Russia and Belarus and said his state would fight alongside Moscow in any conflict. Malofeev warned that in a “worst-case scenario” Russia faced defeat in the war against Ukraine by 2036 “and a confrontation with the West”. This could lead to Russia being “colonised” by 2050, he said.

The solution was to go nuclear, he said. “In the good-case scenario, we have a clear vision of victory in the ideological war,” he said, reflecting views in Putin’s ruling circle.

“Based on forecasting and projections, we envision the annexation of [Ukrainian cities] Kyiv, Odesa, Kharkiv, and so on [and] the disintegration of the European Union. In this case b y 2050 Russia would occupy the “leadership in ensuring global security and justice,” he added. If Russia failed to challenge the West it would become a “secondary country”.

After Wednesday’s Ukrainian strike on St Petersburg as it hosted the forum, Kyiv overnight targeted a major Putin ammunition warehouse in occupied Donetsk region. “It’s a total mess,” said an onlooker amid repeated thunderous explosions.

In the hit on St Petersburg, a major oil port terminal was badly damaged and the naval corvette Boikiy — used to escort sanctions-busting vessels through the English Channel - was struck. Overnight, three died and seven were wounded in a Ukrainian strike on Simferopol, capital of occupied Crimea.

Meanwhile, in another blow to Russia, Ukraine unveiled its new FP-7 air defence missiles designed to shoot down Putin’s ballistic missiles. The homegrown innovation follows delays in receiving Western missiles, including US Patriots.

Ukrainian company Fire Point showed off a prototype of the new missile which completed successful tests. The first interceptions could be carried out as early as this year. This comes as Britain, Germany and France are taking steps for a joint plan to involve Putin in negotiations aimed at ending the war. However, there is no sign that Russia is seeking to halt the conflict.