Colonel Igor Korotchenko (inset left), editor-in-chief of Russia's National Defence magazine, told state media that yesterday's nuclear drills were a rehearsal for destroying the UK and US. Colonel Korotchenko warned that if the strikes had been carried out for real, Britain would have been sunk beneath the Atlantic Ocean and North America would be replaced by a naval strait named after Joseph Stalin. He stressed that such an attack would only be carried out if Russia was hit first, but his remarks come after Vladimir Putin (inset right) threatened the West with atomic attacks over the war in Ukraine. Nuclear exercises carried out yesterday involved launches of Russia's intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarines and bombers - dubbed 'Grom' or 'Thunder' - which Moscow holds every year. And adding to tensions, Russia today warned that it could attack the West's commercial satellites in 'retaliation' to the US and its allies using them to aid Ukraine's war effort.
