Pro-Kremlin propaganda TV in Russia has aired footage entitled "In anticipation of nuclear conflict ".
The chilling sequence shows a number of nuclear explosions and their aftermath before the programme presenter talks to the camera as he stands beside a row of old gas masks.
The channel is owned by the media wing of Gazprom, the Kremlin-obedient energy giant which is now starving the West of Russian gas for the coming winter.
The sequence was entitled: "In anticipation of nuclear conflict - how weapons of mass destruction have become part of the geopolitical game.”
It comes as a top Putin lieutenant Ramzan Kadyrov - the leader of Chechnya and a war fanatic - called on Putin to contemplate “declaring martial law in the border territories and using low-yield nuclear weapons” to overcome his latest military humiliations in Ukraine.
“I do not know what the Defence Ministry reports to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief [Putin], but in my personal opinion, we need to take more drastic measures.”
He complained that Putin’s commanders had failed to rout Ukraine’s supposed “Satanists and fascists”.
The TV sequence blames the West for too much talk of nuclear war, when it is Putin’s acolytes and propagandists - plus the Kremlin leader himself - who are constantly floating the threat of atomic apocalypse.
The message appeared to be that the West should cave in to Putin’s demands on Ukraine and the threat of nuclear war would diminish.
"We’re in a situation in which superiority in resources and conventional weaponry is on the side of the West,” said Vasily Kashin, a military and political analyst at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow.
“Russia’s power is based on its nuclear arsenal.”
Despite this Putin was today reinforcing his conventional forces with a new surge of war equipment being moved from thousands of miles away in Siberia.
A video showed armaments heading west from Krasnoyarsk, some 3,000 miles from the war zone.
Meanwhile Russia’s “surrender” at strategic Lyman has caused deep angst among Putin propagandists.
They are targeting Putin's military top brass and demanding backings in the high command.
Reservist military commander and normally loyalist MP Andrey Gurulev hit out: “I cannot explain this surrender in military terms.
“It is probably a milestone not only militarily, but also politically, especially now.
“The problem is a system of lies, reports of a good situation [when the reality is bad].
“This rot comes from the top down.”
A member of the Russian parliament’s defence committee, he claimed the Russian forces were heroes led by self-serving donkeys.
He stormed on state TV: “Did we not know the number of forces that were advancing on Lyman?
“If not, where was the intelligence?
“The 144th Division worked perfectly on the ground, as did army aviation.
“The artillery did not stop working at all.
“The whole problem is not on the ground, but in the [army general staff] where they still do not understand, and fail to own the situation.”
