Russia intensify WW3 fears with 'short nuclear war' warning

Russia have gone back to stoking fears of a third world war after their foreign minister Sergei Lavrov claimed his country could crush Europe in a 'short war'.

This is the country that's over four years into their three day 'special military operation' against Ukraine, so if they're struggling with one country their chances of rolling over the rest of the continent in short order seems unlikely.

Lavrov accused Germany of trying to establish a 'Fourth Reich' in Europe, and as one of Vladimir Putin's most prominent mouthpieces he's regularly spewing Russian propaganda.

Speaking at the UN in New York, Lavrov hinted that if there was a wider-scale war on the continent then it'd be 'a completely different war, and it will be short'.

Whether that implies Russia would use nuclear weapons or is another round of claims from them that they can crush other countries in a matter of days is one we'd rather not get an answer to.

Lavrov claimed any war with Europe would be over quickly (CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP via Getty Images)

Lavrov says a lot of things, earlier this month he claimed that the war had already started after Germany announced that a recent attempted drone attack on one of their airports could be traced back to Russia.

Meanwhile, at the UN he claimed that it was Europe that was getting ready to declare war on Russia.

Putin's mouthpiece suggested that countries stockpiling weapons in the face of Russian aggression could lead to a 'self-fulfilling prophecy', claiming that eventually they'd decide to use those weapons for something like attacking Russia.

The CIA has been warning that Russia intends to attack a number of targets, including several popular holiday destinations, and Brits have been warned to stock up on some supplies in the event of an emergency that might disrupt the usual food chain.

To be clear, the UK is not currently at war with Russia but there have been a series of attacks across Europe which have been traced back to Moscow.

Russia has the world's largest stockpile of nuclear weapons (Contributor/Getty Images)

There have also been warnings that if things escalate then Russia may have other avenues of attack, including cyber attacks which could disrupt infrastructure and reduce the ability to afford weapons.

Russia already conducts 'grey zone' operations to sabotage other countries without outright declaring war, but if war did come then they'd also have a large arsenal of very destructive weapons to add to the pile.

That includes the world's largest nuclear arsenal, as their military may be getting bogged down in Ukraine but the Russians still have thousands of nuclear warheads and it would only need a fraction of that to wipe out Europe.

Of course one of the foundations of nuclear war is mutually assured destruction, there are enough nukes pointed back at Russia that there would be no winner from such a war.