The West is more likely to be hit by a devastating nuclear strike than Russia is to accept defeat in the war in Ukraine, the country's state TV has claimed.
In the latest chilling threat to come out of Russia, the prospect of Vladimir Putin ordering the launch of nuclear weapons has been made very clear.
Margarita Simonyan, editor of state broadcaster RT, was one of a team of pundits to make fiery threats against NATO and the West.
"Either we lose in Ukraine, or the Third World War starts. I think World War Three is more realistic, knowing us, knowing our leader," she said during a high budget debate show.
"The most incredible outcome, that all this will end with a nuclear strike, seems more probable to me than the other course of events.
"This is to my horror on one hand, but on the other hand, it is what it is. We will go to heaven, while they will simply croak... We're all going to die someday."
This morning UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said: "We are part of a Nato partnership of 30 nations who outgun him, outnumber him and have potentially all the capabilities at our disposal.
"I don't fear him, and I think we should be very grateful in this country that we have a nuclear deterrent."
Simonyan apparent eagerness of a nuclear strike - which would almost certainly be met by a devastating counter strike by countries in the West, and potentially the end of human civilisation as we know it - comes after a week of escalating threats from the Russians.
At the beginning of the week Foreign Minster Sergei Lavrov told the world not to underestimate the considerable risks of nuclear conflict, and said NATO's supply of weapons to Ukraine "in essence" meant that the Western alliance was engaged in a proxy war with Russia.
He was asked about the importance of avoiding World War III and whether US-Russia tensions could be compared to the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.
"I would not want to elevate those risks artificially. Many would like that. The danger is serious, real. And we must not underestimate it," Lavrov said.
The Foreign Minister's bleak warning was followed by one from state tv host Vladimir Solovyev, which came while he was discussing the deployment of Sarmat 2 with the head of the Roscosmos space agency.
"As it turned out, one Sarmat means minus one Great Britain," Solovyov said.
He went on to suggest that the UK should be wiped off the map because it had become "totally boorish".
And then Vladimir Putin provided his own veiled threat to the West and any country which interfered with his war.
"If someone intends to interfere in what is going on from the outside they must know that constitutes an unacceptable strategic threat to Russia,' he said during a meeting with lawmakers in St Petersburg," the Russian president said.
"They must know that our response to counter strikes will be lightning fast. Fast.
"We have all the weapons we need for this. No one else can brag about these weapons, and we won’t brag about them. But we will use them."
