WW3 fears as what would occur if Putin nuked UK capital revealed in horrifying step-by-step

Putin’s main target would be London, specifically around Downing Street, Whitehall and the Houses of Parliament, with his biggest nuke capable of bringing utter chaos

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Another day, another reason to believe that nuclear war is coming – so it’s better to be prepared than taken by surprise, right?

Well, with Putin, Trump, China, Greenland and more all getting involved in ramping up the rhetoric, the Daily Star has tried to figure out what would happen if Putin did go full-warmongerer and fling his most powerful nuclear bomb towards the UK.

Obviously, his main target would be London, specifically around Downing Street, Whitehall and the Houses of Parliament. And Putin’s biggest nuke – that we know off – would cause utter destruction.

The RS-28 Sarmat, nicknamed “Satan II,” is a beast of a weapon. It’s Russia ’s latest super-heavy ICBM, built to replace aging Soviet tech.

This silo-based missile carries a massive payload – up to 10 heavy nuclear warheads or 15 lighter ones – and is theoretically capable of levelling an area the size of France.

Its range is enormous (about 18,000 km), allowing it to fly over the South Pole and hit targets from unexpected angles, bypassing traditional US missile defenses. It can even deploy hypersonic gliders that zigzag to avoid interception. In short, it’s designed to be an unstoppable nuclear sledgehammer.

And it has a wonderfully horrifying payload of around 10 metric tons, and a yield of 7.5 megatons.

We put that data into Nuclear Secrecy’s Nuke Map to see that impact should it hit London’s political focal point . . . and it was horrifying to say the least.

Here’s the data it produced:

Fireball radius: 3.14 km (30.9 km²)

Maximum size of the nuclear fireball; relevance to damage on the ground depends on the height of detonation. If it touches the ground, the amount of radioactive fallout is significantly increased. Anything inside the fireball is effectively vaporised.

Radiation radius (500 rem): 3.23 km (32.7 km²)

500 rem ionizing radiation dose; likely fatal, in about one month; 15% of survivors will eventually die of cancer as a result of exposure.

Heavy blast damage radius (20 psi): 4.26 km (57 km²)

At 20 psi overpressure, heavily built concrete buildings are severely damaged or demolished; fatalities approach 100%. Often used as a benchmark for heavy damage in cities.

Moderate blast damage radius (5 psi): 8.96 km (252 km²)

At 5 psi overpressure, most residential buildings collapse, injuries are universal, fatalities are widespread. The chances of a fire starting in commercial and residential damage are high, and buildings so damaged are at high risk of spreading fire. Often used as a benchmark for moderate damage in cities.

Light blast damage radius (1 psi): 23 km (1,670 km²)

At around 1 psi overpressure, glass windows can be expected to break. This can cause many injuries in a surrounding population who comes to a window after seeing the flash of a nuclear explosion (which travels faster than the pressure wave). Often used as a benchmark for light damage in cities.

Thermal radiation radius (3rd degree burns): 25.4 km (2,020 km²)

Third degree burns extend throughout the layers of skin, and are often painless because they destroy the pain nerves. They can cause severe scarring or disablement, and can require amputation

However, despite this, Hull would probably be the key target for Putin anyway, given it consistently appeared on Cold War target lists and remains a strategic choke point today. It processes a huge portion of the UK’s natural gas and oil, making it the country’s “energy lung.” Destroying its ports severs food and supply lines to the entire North, while hitting the nearby chemical plants would create a toxic, unrecoverable dead zone.

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