Russian state television is simulating a nuclear attack on Ireland

A TV program shown in Russian appears to demonstrate how Ireland would be completely destroyed by an underwater nuclear drone launched from one of its navy’s submarines.

t claims an explosion of the 100-megaton warhead would cause a “gigantic tsunami wave up to 500 m high.”

The Russian state television program, hosted by Dmitry Kiselyov, showed a simulation of a nuclear attack on Europe that would decimate Ireland and Britain.

The simulation shows an underwater missile being launched just off the coast of Donegal.

Showing the simulation, the presenter says: “Another possibility is to plunge Britain into the depths of the sea with Russia’s Poisedon unmanned underwater vehicle.

“It approaches its target at a depth of 1 km at a speed of 200 km/h. This underwater drone is unstoppable. The warhead on it has a yield of up to 100 megatons.

“The explosion of this thermonuclear torpedo off the British coast will cause a gigantic tsunami wave up to 500 meters high.

“Such a barrage alone also carries extreme doses of radiation. Once it has passed through the British Isles it will turn what might remain of them into a radioactive desert.”

The Russian embassy in Ireland responded to the program by saying it was “the views” of TV editors and that nuclear war “must never be unleashed”.

The embassy said so Irish examiner: “The views and presentations in the TV show are those of the editorial team.

“Russia’s official position has always been that there can be no winners in a nuclear war and that it must never be unleashed, as reiterated in the Joint Declaration of the Leaders of the Five Nuclear-Weapon States on Preventing Nuclear War and Avoiding an Arms Race, published on January 3, 2022.”

The Foreign Office told Independent.ie it would not comment on the matter.

Fine Gael TD Neale Richmond tweeted: “Casually discussing the detonation of a nuclear device off the coast of Donegal is a chilling glimpse into the mindset of the Russian state, but we still allow the Russian ambassador to broadcast his state disinformation here from the embassy in the Orwell Road.”

Former Justice Minister Alan Shatter added: “Russian state television casually illustrates the obliteration of Ireland by a Russian nuclear bomb. This is not an independent TV station. It is time to reconvene and disguise the Russian ambassador, this time threatening expulsion.”

Billy Kelleher TD, MEP Fianna Fáil, said: “I assume someone in the Irish Government is expressing our absolute disgust at these threats against Ireland. Free speech does not exist in Russia, so these statements are made with Putin’s approval. Time to tell the Russian government that this wild language is simply unacceptable to us.”