Putin 'closer than ever' to triggering devastating nuclear war, defence expert warns
dailystar.co.ukUkraine with "lightning-fast" weapons that Russia "won't brag about" in a bizarre speech. Defence expert and academic Michael Clarke has responded to fears over whether Russia could use nuclear weapons, saying that the Russian leader is closer than he once was to pulling the nuclear trigger.Clarke downplayed worries over hidden weaponry, citing rather public testing and boasting of Sarmat nuclear missiles, but has said nations are on full alert amid growing concerns over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.Clarke claimed that the Pentagon "will not be taken by surprise" in Putin's claims, saying that Putin was "exploiting" his unpredictable nature to "scare the West into giving him a free hand in Ukraine".
Clarke continued: "Britain should not be frightened of this albeit dangerous - perhaps even mad - dictator because he has been issuing threats for over a decade now."Equally, we should not be complacent about his capacity to inflict further harm on the world.
He is not as far away from using a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine as we used to think he was."The defence expert continued, alleging the use of a "so-called 'battlefield nuke'" could be used in the future, with a potential destructive radius of "one-kilometre".Clarke says the potential battlefield nuke would "wipe out well dug-in Ukrainian forces" although "it is not possible to predict how Putin may expand the war".Writing in The Sun, Clarke said Nato may not respond with nuclear arms if Russia fire their missiles: "My guess is that Nato would not launch nuclear weapons in return but instead opt to take out military targets in a massive conventional bombing campaign.""And my prediction — and my fear — is this war is about to get a lot more dangerous to us all."For.
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