WW3 Warning: Putin Associate Warns Russia Has 'Weapons To Wipe Out Planet' Without Nukes

Russian nationalist MP and Kremlin ally Alexey Zhuravlev has upped the ante amid looming 'world war' threat, claiming Russia possesses advanced weaponry capable of destroying the entire planet without relying on nuclear warheads.

Zhuravlev issued the warning as the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), the final nuclear arms control agreement between Washington and Moscow, reached its expiry date on 5 February 2026.

He alleged that the United States' non-compliance with international arms limits has forced Russia to maintain high alert levels. These comments follow the recent deployment of the Oreshnik missile system, which Moscow suggests diminishes the strategic necessity of traditional nuclear deterrence.

Putin Associate Stirs The Pot As New START Fades Out

New START was born in a different era. Signed in 2010 and entering into force the following year, it was meant to cap deployed strategic nuclear forces and, just as importantly, to keep verification alive through short-notice, on-site inspections. The treaty limited each side to 1,550 deployed strategic warheads, alongside caps on deployed launchers and delivery systems.​

That system of mutual checking has been fraying for years. Reuters notes that inspections were interrupted during the COVID period and then effectively halted when Putin suspended Russia's participation in 2023, amid the war in Ukraine and anger over US support for Kyiv. Even so, Reuters reports that neither side has accused the other of breaching the warhead limits. ​

The treaty cannot simply be rolled forward again: it was already extended once in 2021, and its terms don't allow a second extension. Reports said that Putin suggested last September the two sides should agree informally to stick to New START's warhead limits for another year, but US President Donald Trump has not given an official response. If there is a plan beyond that, it is not being sold to the public with any convincing clarity.​

So Zhuravlev's outburst lands not as an isolated provocation, but as a nasty little flare fired over a darkening sea.

Hypersonics And The Seduction Of 'Non-Nuclear' Doom

The most brazen twist in Zhuravlev's comments is his insistence that Russia can now threaten catastrophe without nuclear warheads because hypersonic weapons, he argues, 'diminish the value of nuclear missiles.' He points to systems such as 'Oreshnik,' suggesting that even conventional strikes could be 'devastating'.​

Oreshnik is not imaginary. It has been described as a weapon with a distinctive feature: it can carry multiple warheads capable of striking different targets simultaneously, an ability more commonly associated with longer-range intercontinental systems. Like many Russian missiles, reports said it can be fitted with either nuclear or conventional warheads, and there was no indication that the strike referenced in its reporting involved a nuclear payload. The missile can travel at around 13,000 kph.​

Hypersonics compress warning times, strain air defences, and muddy intent. If a missile can be nuclear or non-nuclear, the target may not have the luxury of waiting to find out. That is how panic becomes policy.​

The Oreshnik's multiple-warhead capability may sound like a sci-fi boast, but the report situates it in a more prosaic lineage: analysts say it is derived from the RS-26 Rubezh, originally designed as an intercontinental missile. ​

Which brings us back to the larger danger. If New START expires without a replacement, Reports warns it will mark the first time in more than 50 years that the two largest nuclear powers operate without treaty limits.

Experts said that any major increase in warheads wouldn't happen overnight because it would be expensive and technically difficult, but the absence of a framework still raises the risk that worst-case assumptions harden into long-term strategy.

Observers note that true peacemaking involves building systems to prevent accidental war rather than threatening total annihilation. The global community now faces a period of heightened unpredictability as traditional safeguards disappear.