Russia’s Defense Ministry posted a Telegram video on December 14 showing troops loading a launch silo in Kozelsk, Russia, with an intercontinental ballistic missile.

RS-24 Yars Thermonuclear icbm

• Weight: 54 tons
• Length: 75 feet
• Payload: multiple conventional or nuclear warheads
• Range: 7,500 miles

The Defense Ministry said the occasion was to celebrate its Strategic Missile Force Day on December 17, but the provocative video was more likely a response to the United States announcing that it may deploy its most advanced air defense system, the Patriot missile, to Ukraine.

• Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia will “definitely” consider Patriot systems in Ukraine a target.
• Peskov also said that such increased military support means the U.S. has “effectively become a party” to the war.

• Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated that the war could escalate into a nuclear conflict.

Trumpet forecast: Russia and the U.S. are clashing over Ukraine, but watch the reaction in Europe (all of which is within range of this particular missile). In 2014, when Russia forcibly annexed Crimea from Ukraine, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote:

We have been prophesying for around 70 years that Eastern Europe would become a vital part of a new European superpower—a resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire. … The fear you see in Europe because of events in Crimea is going to cause 10 leaders in Europe to unite in a sudden and dramatic way—and in precise accordance with the Bible’s description of that European empire! … Europe’s new fear of Russia is going to play a major role in hastening the fulfillment of that prophecy!

Europeans’ fear of Russia is growing far greater as Russian troops destroy Ukrainian cities and as Vladimir Putin threatens annihilation with nuclear weapons.

Learn more: “The Crimean Crisis Is Reshaping Europe!”