Russian Lawmaker: Moscow Will Use Missiles to 'Burn' Europeans With Napalm

A Russian lawmaker recently made the alarming call to "burn" European allies with napalm while discussing the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

A clip of the exchange was shared to Twitter on Saturday by Julia Davis, creator of the Russian Media Monitor, a Russian state-run news watchdog outfit. In the video, Pyotr Tolstoy, a member of the State Duma chamber of the Russian government, discussed at length the nation's efforts to take control of Ukraine on a Russian news program and dismissed the effectiveness and importance of Ukrainian allies in Europe, claiming that they will be swept into the "dustbin of history."

"I couldn't care less what happens to [French President Emmanuel] Macron," Tolstoy said. "What is important to me is that we take Odesa, Kyiv, Dnipro, Poltava, Sumy, Kharkiv. This is what's important to me. As far as Macron, [former German Chancellor Angela] Merkel, the Poles, the Balts, they aren't important to me at all."

In response to Tolstoy's remarks, the program's host pushed back, saying that the discussion of European leaders in relation to Ukraine was necessary, because, he argued, the likelihood of Russia taking control of certain critical regions of the country would depend on whether or not "German Leopards" and "French howitzers" were deployed to them. The lawmaker continued his defiance, which Davis characterized in her tweet as "bravado," saying that European aid would be no match for Russian firepower.

"We make excellent missiles," Tolstoy said. "We will burn European humanitarians with napalm along with their weapons on the territory of Ukraine."

Speaking to Newsweek about the escalating rhetoric, Rajan Menon, a political scientist affiliated with the Defense Priorities think tank, said that Tolstoy's comments were in conflict with the reality of Russia's failures, but also noted that his inflammatory remarks were "nothing new."

"Pyotr Tolstoy seems oblivious to the reverses the Russian army has suffered since early September and indeed seems to favor continuing the war for years—without regard to the human and martial costs for Russia—so as to seize new Russia cities, including Kyiv, Mikolaiv, and Kherson," Menon said. "As for torching humanitarian norms, Russia has long since done that. Such rants are nothing new."

Rhetoric from some Russian leaders and members of the Russian media has continued to escalate in severity as the invasion of Ukraine grows ever more protracted and troubled. This has included insinuations that Russia could attack other nations for providing aid to Ukraine, with former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev notably stating that NATO member nations could be "legitimate military targets." Medvedev, Russian President Vladimir Putin's ally and current deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, made the claim in a recent post made to his Telegram account.

"Today...the main question is whether the hybrid war de facto declared on our country by NATO can be considered to be the alliance's entry into war with Russia? Is it possible to view the delivery of a large volume of weapons to Ukraine as an attack on Russia?" Medvedev wrote. "The leaders of NATO countries keep unanimously squawking that their countries and the entire bloc are not at war with Russia. Yet, everyone is well aware that this is not the case."

Updated, 12/17/2022, 6:30 p.m. ET: This article was updated to include a statement from an expert with Defense Priorities.