NATO and the UK should take a more "proactive" line against Vladimir Putin and his "irrational" attacks against civilians in Ukraine with the tyrant willing to use tactical nuclear weapons, a former British Army Colonel has said.
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, who also served as a NATO commander, called the tyrannical leader a "cornered rat" as he advised a series of steps for how the West could protect the besieged nation.
He said to prevent further bloodshed, the alliance needs to bring an immediate halt to the possibility of Putin using tactical nuclear weapons on Ukrainian cities.
It comes as Russia continues its bombardment of its neighbour for the second day, hitting key civilian infrastructure targets in a number of Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv.
It is a direct response to a suspected truck bomb which killed at least three and took with it a huge chunk of the Kerch bridge on Saturday.
The Kerch bridge - which connects the Russian mainland to Crimea - is a symbolic and tactical link between Moscow and its annexed territory.
Speaking on BBC radio this morning, Col de Bretton-Gordon said: "At the moment we've been reacting to incidents, we need to be proactive.
"He might be a cornered rat and that is a very good analogy but we cannot just let him go on firing 80 odd missiles a day at schools and hospitals in Kyiv and other cities around Ukraine and stand back.
"We cannot hold the coats for too much longer, we must get in there.
"All these other dreadful things we are facing like the cost of living and people worrying about climate chance unless we get this right in Ukraine they will all become horrifically irrelevant."
He added: "He's a desperate person, an irrational tyrant is up against the ropes and hanging on by his fingertips.
"In my opinion tactical nuclear weapons are an option. NATO must be proactive to make sure he can't use them."
This morning Ukraine's emergency services announced at least 19 people were killed and another 105 wounded during yesterday's assault.
One pro-Putin military expert warned Russia's bombing of Ukraine could go on all winter and plunge the country "back into he 19th century".
Kyiv and other cities across the country are being fiercely shelled in the most intense blasts to hit the Ukrainian capital since the early days of the war.
Britain's top cyber spy said today that Britain would expect to see indicators if Russia was starting to consider dyploying its nuclear arsenal in its war with Ukraine amid clears and claims the despot could press the button.
After more than seven months of war, Jeremy Fleming, director of the GCHQ spy agency, told BBC Radio that Russia was running short of munitions, friends and troops.
Putin has so far stayed within established military doctrine of not using nuclear weapons, Fleming said, but his agency would be looking out for signs that this could change.
"I would hope that we will see indicators if they started to go down that path," he said, without saying what those indicators could be.
"But let's be really clear about that, if they are considering that, that would be a catastrophe in the way that many people have talked about".
