Vladimir Putin’s notorious ‘doomsday radio’ crackled into life with a string of codewords after a suspected Russian missile hit NATO territory in Poland.
The mysterious Cold War relic spewed out a sequence of cryptic messages hours after the incursion, which could further deepen tensions between the military alliance and Moscow.
Volodymyr Zelensky also claimed yesterday that early data suggests Putin deployed a North Korean missile in an attack that killed six people in a Ukrainian village.
The key cyphers often make little sense, with the newest series including the words BRIBETAKER, SEXFAT or SEXOFAT, MONARCHIST, MOTEL, MUZOPAYUS, STEPENNY and LEVRETKA.
One message included KLETKA, or ‘CELL’, while one other used NEDOTEPA, roughly translating as ‘DIMWIT’.
A Russian missile and drone barrage across Ukraine killed not less than 10 civilians, including children, overnight, officials said yesterday.
Enroll for all of the newest stories
Start your day informed with Metro’s News Updates newsletter or get Breaking News alerts the moment it happens.
NATO scrambled its warplanes after one crossed the country’s western border into Poland leaving a 33ft-wide crater.
The blitz expanded Russia’s almost every day bombardment of Ukrainian cities, including the capital of Kyiv where tens of hundreds spent the night sheltering in subway stations.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte called it ‘one more reckless act by Russia and a dangerous consequence of its war against Ukraine’.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said it was ‘a really serious incident’, but added: ‘There are absolutely no reasons to imagine that Poland was the goal.’
The attack got here two days after Zelensky met with US President Donald Trump and representatives of American defence corporations as a part of a plea for swifter deliveries of air defence systems.
Photographer: Anadolu
Provider: Anadolu via Getty Images
Source: Anadolu
The radio – on air for half a century and nicknamed The Buzzer – is linked to Russia’s Strategic Forces.
The 4625 kHz frequency often carries a repetitive buzzing sound, but when a message is shipped, the buzzing stops and a ghostly operator reads out codewords in Russian.
The aim of its messages stays unclear, but they have an inclination to look at times of high tension.
It’s widely believed to form a part of a Russian military command-and-control network, allowing instructions to be transmitted to designated units through one-time codes.
The precise operator and purpose have never been officially disclosed.
Bursts of activity may indicate military exercises, readiness tests or operational communications.
Get in contact with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
MORE: Donald Trump dealt major blow in $10,000,000,000 BBC lawsuit
MORE: US launches heavy strikes on Iran after Trump vowed to ‘beat the s***’ out of them
MORE: America’s capital has a ‘perception problem’, however it’s not all politics and MAGA hats