Vladimir Putin is "highly unlikely" to use nuclear weapons in his war with Ukraine but has shown himself to be "totally irrational", the Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has said. It comes as Mr Wallace prepares to join a crisis meeting of European nations following a series of explosions that caused major damage to Russia's undersea Nord Stream pipelines.
The Russian president has threatened to use "all the means at our disposal" if his country is threatened, seen as a sign that he could use tactical nuclear weapons in response to attacks on parts of Ukraine he has annexed. But Mr Wallace played down the prospect, telling a fringe meeting at the Tory party conference that although the use of nuclear weapons was in the Russian military doctrine, it would be unacceptable to Moscow’s allies India and China.
He said Mr Putin "was given a very clear sense what is acceptable and unacceptable" in meetings with the Indian and Chinese leaderships. But Mr Wallace added that the Russian leader’s actions, from the nerve agent attack in Salisbury to the invasion of Ukraine, were "totally irrational".
