Sinister convoy of Russian mobile missile launchers on 250-mile journey to Moscow

Putin’s lackey warned the clock is ‘ticking’ towards nuclear war as a convoy of nuclear missile launchers flowed towards Moscow.

Video footage showed the hulking dark green Yars missile launchers being wheeled 250 miles to the capital more than two months ahead of the country’s Victory Day parade in Red Square.

Capable of flying 17,500 miles per hour, 25 times the speed of sound, these mobile intercontinental ballistic missiles are a frequent feature of Russia’s annual celebration of its victory over Nazi Germany in the Second World War.

The convoy clad in Russian flags is just the latest flaunting of Russia’s nuclear arsenal as 71-year-old Vladimir Putin seeks to taunt the West amidst the military gridlock two years on from Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

A Russian Yars intercontinental ballistic missile system drives in Red Square during last year’s Victory Day parade, marking 78 years since the victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two (Picture: Sputnik/Gavriil Grigorov/Pool via Reuters)

A Yars intercontinental ballistic missile being fired from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in northern Russian during a military training exercise (Picture: Russian Defence Ministry / AFP)

Russian troops stood beside the Yars mobile nuclear missile launchers making the 250-mile journey to Moscow

Just a day earlier, Putin flew in the pilot’s seat of a Tu-160M strategic bomber, a key component of Russia’s nuclear triad.

Yars missiles are currently the core of the ground-based component of Russia’s strategic nuclear force.

They have a range of up to 7,500 miles, enables strikes on countries like the UK and USA, a realistic threat if the words of Putin lapdog Dmitry Medvedev are anything to go by.

Russia’s security council deputy chairman Medvedev, a former president and prime minister, recently said Russia could bomb London, Washington, Berlin and Kyiv in Moscow’s forces were pushed into retreat in Ukraine.

He warned: ‘Sad as it may sound, this [nuclear war] scenario is real. We must do everything we can to prevent it from happening.

‘But this very clock, which is ticking in a certain direction, has now accelerated very much.

‘And in this I also see the inability, excuse me, the impotence of these Western authorities.

‘[They] keep saying the same thing: ‘No, it’s the Russians who are scaring us, they will never do it’. They’re wrong.

‘If it comes to the existence of our country, and I said this recently, what choice is left for the [Russian] leadership, for the head of state? None.’

He said: ‘So this is, unfortunately, a real threat, a direct and clear threat to all of humanity.

‘And secondly, there are also accidents, from which no one is immune.

‘And the accidental, unintentional start of a nuclear conflict cannot be discounted.

‘So all these games around Ukraine are extremely dangerous.’

Putin has sought to sound the alarm of nuclear escalation since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine ground to a halt and its forces were pushed out of captured land.

By July 2022, Putin had made 35 threats of nuclear war since launching the invasion just five months earlier.

The US warned Putin is planning to launch a nuclear weapon into space this year.

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The strategy risks rattling Ukraine’s allies, whose at-times hesitant and disorganised supply of weapons and money to the government in Kyiv has been criticised for potentially jeopardising the war effort.

Russia’s annual Victory Day parade each May is used a vast display of military might, and this year is no difference.

The Yars missile launchers are being moved at a snail’s pace from from Teykovo, in Ivanovo region, west to the Alabino training ground in Moscow region.

Russian state media highlighted the ‘march’ as it was seen off on the 250-mile journey by an orchestra.

Among them were defence ministry channel Zvezda, and pro-Putin outlets like Izvestia and REN TV, belonging to the National Media Group, headed by Putin’s lover Alina Kabaeva, 40, a former Olympic gymnast.

Yuri Malakhov, group commander of the Yars missile compound, said: ‘We make a 400 kilometre [250 mile] march to take part in training, to participate in the Victory Parade.

‘In general, it goes well, all times are observed, periodically we do control inspections.

‘Mechanic-drivers are doing an excellent job, showing their skills and professionalism.

‘The march passes through three regions, Ivanovo, Vladimir, now we have arrived in the Moscow region.’

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