Russian TV Host Sends Nuclear Warning After Drone Falls Near Her House

A key Kremlin ally and TV host of the state-controlled channel Russia Today (RT) warned that the threat of deployment of nuclear weapons is becoming "increasingly uncontested."

Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of RT, made the claim on Sunday after a Ukrainian drone fell near her childhood home during the weekend.

Her rhetoric follows a summer of sabre-rattling invoking the specter of nuclear war as Russia struggles to subdue Ukraine in the war that began on February 24, 2022.

Political cheerleaders of Russian President Vladimir Putin threw their support behind the possibility of Moscow using nuclear weapons in the war in August, and later that month one Putin ally argued on TV that Russia could not win without nuclear weapons.

Vladimir Solovyov's on-air tirade was sparked by the biggest drone attack on Russian targets since the war began. Physicist Mikhail Kovalchuk, who is said to be part of Putin's inner circle, suggested conducting nuclear weapons tests to scare the West.

This weekend, it was Simonyan who again suggested a "nuclear ultimatum" may be inevitable.

According to a Google translation, Simonyan's post on the social network site Telegram on Sunday read: "Tonight, an attack drone fell right in front of our family home in Adler, where I and my mother grew up, and where my relatives and their small children still live.

"The goals are ever further away, the stakes are ever higher, the nuclear ultimatum becomes increasingly uncontested."

Newsweek reached out to Russia Today on Monday seeking further comment from Simonyan. A spokesperson said Simonyan wished to add: "Just like any normal person, and especially as a mother of three children, I am horrified by the possibility of a nuclear war and cannot even imagine such an eventuality.

"Yet, at the same time, this insane, rabid support that is being provided by the West for the fascist Kyiv regime poses a direct threat to the security and existence of Russia itself. And when this is so, there may be no other choice left."

Newsweek also contacted Russia's Foreign Ministry and Ukraine's Ministry of Defense, by email for comment.

Simonyan's post came the same day a large drone attack targeted a Russian missile factory. Ukraine's Main Directorate of Intelligence agency (GUR) said three out of four drones struck the Smolensk Aviation Plant on Sunday, causing significant damage and disrupting production of the Kh-59 cruise missiles. The city of Smolensk is roughly 250 miles west of Moscow, near Russia's border with ally Belarus.

Footage shared on social media site X, formerly Twitter, by Eastern European outlet Nexta TV claimed to show the moment the drones struck the building.

Russian officials denied that the attack had been successful, claiming all drones had been intercepted and destroyed.

The use of drones appears to have become more common in recent weeks, with reports that Ukraine had found a new way to target Russia with the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The objects can be designed to explode long after they have hit the ground, a Russia media outlet reported last month.

Update 10/3/23 3:08 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include additional comments by Margarita Simonyan.