Dr. Yuri Baranchick, A pro-Kremlin propagandist who works at Moscow’s pro-Puitin RUSSTRAT Institute, s warning that Putin has a plan for destroying the nuclear capabilities of both Britain and France in a single day should the Ukraine conflict escalate into open war between Russia and NATO. The plan, Baranchik said in a Telegram rant, is called “Operation Unthinkable.”
In the plan, the rapid elimination of France and Britain’s nuclear potential would significantly weaken Europe. The move would also target submarine-based launch capabilities of the two major American allies, and the attack would unfold as part of Russia’s opening gambit should nuclear weapons come into play in Europe. Fighting this way, Baranchik said, would pull out the “nuclear teeth” from two of NATO’s most important players, changing the “entire security system” on the European continent.
This would clear the way for Russia to destroy the whole of Europe, saving it from the bothersome (and probably impossible) task of fighting a long and difficult war of attrition.
Britain and France, in practical terms, both pose as much a nuclear threat to Russia as does the United States. France—one of the five major nuclear powers on the planet—is believed to have a nuclear warhead stockpile of three hundred or so weapons. It fields six submarines, including the 99 meter-long Suffren, capable of launching nuclear-tipped missiles from below the sea.
The United Kingdom, likewise, is quite well armed for a nuclear war, fielding as it does six ballistic missile submarines—the Vengeance, the Vanguard, the Vigilant, and the Victorious. Its stockpile of two hundred warheads puts it at last place in the club of major nuclear powers. The others, in ascending order, are China, France, Russia, and the United States.
Branchik says that Operation Unthinkable will be followed by an ultimatum issued by Moscow to the EU, NATO, and the United States, which will demand that all powers cease military and financial support to Ukraine within 24 hours.
