A senior member of a Russian think tank with influence over the Kremlin has suggested president Vladimir Putin consider a “demonstrative” nuclear explosion to scare the West into blocking Ukraine from using its arms on Russian targets.
Dmitry Suslov, of the Council for Foreign and Defence Policy, wrote: “The political and psychological effect of a nuclear mushroom cloud, which will be shown live on all TV channels worldwide, will hopefully remind Western politicians of the one thing that has prevented wars between the great powers since 1945 and that they have now largely lost - fear of nuclear war.”
On Tuesday, Mr Putin warned the West that Nato members in Europe were playing with fire by proposing to let Ukraine use Western weapons to strike inside Russia, which he said could trigger a global conflict.
But within 24 hours, the French and German leaders said Kyiv should be allowed to “neutralise” military bases inside Russia used to attack Ukraine.
French president Emmanuel Macron said “we don’t want escalation” but Ukraine could attack “military sites from which missiles are fired”.
Russian troops are reportedly gathering on the Ukrainian border in preparation for fresh offensive operations.