VLADIMIR Putin’s allies have bizarrely threatened to use the Satan-2 nuclear missile to attack the Yellowstone supervolcano.
The attack - that could cause a radioactive eruption - was openly talked about on state-run TV and came as the Russian tyrant ordered testing of the 16,000 mph missile.
Putin is said to have warned Joe Biden of the test launch of the missile - officially known as the RS-28 Sarmat - in advance, while the US president was in Ukraine.
Speaking on a nightly panel discussion about the war hosted by Kremlin mouthpiece Vladimir Solovyov, one military expert talked about how the missiles could be used.
The expert, who was wearing a military uniform, said the “Sarmat is a special weapon” that can deliver “large number of nuclear warheads at once” to a target.
Then in a deranged threat, he continued: “It is impossible to build an all-looking defence system, which means that the United States is vulnerable, that is the first point.
“And the second point is that the Sarmat poses a threat to the most feared facility on US territory, the Yellowstone volcano.”
Lying underneath the tranquil setting of the Yellowstone National Park in the US lies an enormous magma chamber.
It's responsible for the geysers and hot springs that define the area.
But it's also one of the greatest natural threats to human civilisation as we know it - a potential supervolcano.
The thermal danger zone is a 50-mile-long chamber that is essentially a giant, lid-topped cauldron that is so vast that it can only truly be seen from space.
The mega volcano last blew 70,000 years ago, but it would kill an estimated 100,000 people in the surrounding areas and millions more over time if it erupted today.
Quite what the outcome of such a nuclear attack on it would be remains uncertain.
According to the BBC’s Science Focus, if a nuclear bomb was dropped into an active volcano or one just about to blow it would cause it to erupt a little sooner.
The nuke could also alter the course of the magma flow after the eruption.
Putin said earlier this week that Russia "will pay increased attention to strengthening the nuclear triad" - referring to nukes based on land, sea and in the air.
He was speaking on Defender of the Fatherland Day, a hangover from the days of the USSR which was formerly known as Red Army Day.
Putin also warned that the Sarmat would be deployed this year.
That prompted UN chief Antonio Guterres to warn him to "step back from the brink" of nuclear war.
"We have heard implicit threats to use nuclear weapons," he said.
"The so-called tactical use of nuclear weapons is utterly unacceptable. It is high time to step back from the brink."
He said the possible consequences of a "spiralling conflict" were a "clear and present danger".
"War is not the solution. War is the problem," he added.
With an operational range of up to 11,180 miles, the deadly Sarmat missile is reported to have no equivalent in the West in terms of the terror it could unleash.
There has only been one definitive test flight of a Satan-2 missile - which happened in April 2022.
Hundreds of thousands of soldiers are said to be gearing up for Putin's new offensive, which will mark the one-year anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.