Russia can ‘destroy NATO countries in half an hour’, claims close Putin crony in charge of rockets 

One of Vladimir Putin’s closest cronies claims Russia could destroy all NATO countries ‘in half a hour’.

Dmitry Rogozin, head of the Kremlin’s space agency, Roscosmos, also admitted the strongman’s aim is to defeat the ‘enemy’ West and expunge Ukraine from the map.

‘NATO is waging a war against us,’ said the former deputy premier of the 30-state Western military alliance.

He hinted that Putin would put Russia on a war footing amid speculation that a mass mobilisation is on the cards to bolster his flagging war effort

‘They didn’t announce it, but that doesn’t change anything.

‘Now it’s obvious to everyone.’

The hardliner, 58, said: ‘In a nuclear war, NATO countries will be destroyed by us in half an hour.

‘But we must not allow it, because the consequences of the exchange of nuclear strikes will affect the state of our Earth.

‘Therefore, we will have to defeat this economically and militarily more powerful enemy with conventional armed means.’

He hinted that Putin would put Russia on a war footing amid speculation that a mass mobilisation is on the cards to bolster his flagging war effort.

‘Such a victory is possible with the full solidarity of the whole country with the army, the mobilisation of the state economy.’

Industry must be immediately forced to serve military objectives, he said.

‘This must be done immediately and quickly,’ he said.

Rogozin’s blast against the West and Ukraine came after he highlighted that British YouTuber Benjamin Rich was detained at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan

Rich was with his Belarusian girlfriend Alina Zelupa at the Russian spaceport

Using a word that Putin has banned in relation to Ukraine – ‘war’ – he said: ‘This is a war for the truth – and the right of Russia to exist as a single and independent state.’

He insisted: ‘The very existence of a Ukraine separate from Russia will inevitably turn it into anti-Russia and a springboard of the West for aggression against our people.

‘That is why what we call a Special Military Operation goes far beyond its original meaning and geography.’

He did not say which other territory Putin was eyeing beyond Ukraine.

But he claimed NATO was engaged in a proxy war using Ukrainian soldiers to fight without putting their own forces in harm’s way.

‘The armed forces of Ukraine are expendable cannon fodder for NATO,’ he said.

‘They are only operators trained by NATO instructors who push the levers and buttons of NATO weapons.’

But he also contradicted Putin by saying ‘we are not fighting the Nazis in Ukraine’.

He said: ‘We are liberating Ukraine from NATO occupation and pushing the worst enemy away from our western borders.’

Rogozin’s blast against the West and Ukraine came after he highlighted that British YouTuber Benjamin Rich, who has over 3.5million subscribers, was detained at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan – implying he might have been spying.

Rich was with his Belarusian girlfriend Alina Zelupa.

Rogozin twisted her family name to give it a rude meaning, and claimed the extent of their illegal activities was being established.

‘Basically, I was questioned by Russian police for a few hours for going to see the Buran rocket without the special permission and given a 60-pound administrative fine just like hundreds of foreign adventurers before me.’