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RUSSIA could blitz Britain from 360 degrees – with the same cruise missiles hitting Ukraine – and there is no way of shooting them down, a former top general has warned.
The air launched missiles smashing Kharkiv and Kyiv have a range of almost 3,000km and would take just 90 minutes to hit London from Russia.
Russia’s Kh-101 missiles, pictured, could reach London in just 90 minutes[/caption] Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin has made repeated threats against the West before[/caption]General Sir Richard Barrons told The Sun they would hit in waves of up to 90 at a time if Putin gave the order.
Asked if Britain could defeat an attack, General Sir Richard Barrons said: “No, of course not.
“The UK does not have the air and missile defence that Ukraine has, for now. We’ve not needed it.”
He told The Sun’s World At War show, which you can watch on The Sun’s YouTube channel and thesun.co.uk: “The sort of missiles that fall on Kyiv could fall on London. And Kyiv’s air defences are way, way better.
“Even a quite elderly Russian cruise missile, I’m going to cite Kh-101 released from an aircraft over western Russia, arrives in London 90 minutes later with a 500 kilogram explosive warhead and an accuracy of two meters.
“So pick your door in Downing Street.”
He insisted the threat was “not imminent” but warned it was technically possible.
He added: “If you were wanting to fire at the UK, you might fire from Russia, but then you’ve got to cross Europe.
“You’re more likely to fire from the Atlantic, from the Baltic Sea, from the North Sea, or use an aircraft so the UK can be attacked as an island 360 degrees.”
The Kh-101 weapons General Barrons mentions are long-range cruise missiles.
They fly low to avoid detection systems like infrared and radar scanners and use the Russian equivalent to GPS to reach their target accurately.
The rockets can carry around 500kg of explosive warheads and have a range of more than 2,500km.
It can also reach an altitude of 6,000m and can fly for 10 hours at a time.
Top Brass are frantically looking at ways to make the UK more protected.
General Barrons told The Sun: “There’s a big conversation going on in government about how you do that. It’s quite a big problem. It’s probably a £4 billion problem. But it’s going to be part of this, of this age.”
Just weeks ago a high-ranking Kremlin crony warned of the power of Russian missiles.
Dmitry Kiselyov raged that any attempt by the West to “inflict a strategic defeat on Russia” would result in Armageddon.
Kiselyov – chief of Russia’s largest propaganda machine – said Mad Vlad would unleash his Satan-2 rockets along with other deadly nuclear missiles.
He even claimed the UK would be sunk underwater in an attack.
Speaking on national television, he said: “If NATO countries send their troops into Ukraine in order to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, then the very moment about which Putin once said, ‘Why do we need the world, if there is no Russia in it?’ would come.
“Then everything [all types of missile] would be launched by us, in every direction – Sarmats, Yars, and Avangards.
“American decision-making centres and launchers on land and at sea are already in their sights. France as a nuclear power will have to be disarmed instantly.
“The British Isles will simply go underwater. We have all the required technology for this….but it’s better not to let things get to that point.”
And Putin has ordered tactical nuclear weapons testing after Russia warned the West to back off or face a “worldwide catastrophe”.
The Russian tyrant told his Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu to prepare military drills “in order to increase the readiness of non-strategic nuclear forces to fulfil combat missions”.
The exercises are thought to have involved land, air and sea practice and were apparently focused on the US, UK and France in particular.
Ukrainian soldiers in Kharkiv, where the war rages on[/caption] Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine has dragged on for almost two and a half years[/caption]