An expert has claimed that Vladimir Putin could use Russia's Victory Day celebrations to deploy a tactical nuclear weapon against Ukraine, as the country doubles down on its illegal invasion.
The Russian leader claimed the West was planning to invade his country as he sought to justify the war with Ukraine at the parade in Moscow today.
Weapons expert Hamish de Bretton-Gordon told Express that Russia could use the military parade to intimidate the West and "change the shape of the war".
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He said: “The biggest concern is perhaps the use or direct threat of use of a tactical [or] battlefield nuclear weapon.
"If things are still going so badly on May 9, which is likely, Putin could decide that a nuke is the only way to change the shape of the war.
“Western leaders have been slightly ambiguous about what would happen if Putin used a tactical nuke."
'Tactical' nuclear weapons is an umbrella term for a wide range of weaponry, including smaller bombs and missiles that are considered 'battlefield' weapons.
However, 'strategic' nukes refer to the bombs that the US and the USSR threatened to use against each other during the decades-long Cold War.
de Bretton-Gordon said: “I think we need them to state very clearly that even a small nuclear weapon would lead to NATO directly targeting strategic Russian targets with sophisticated conventional weapons.
“These targets would be any nuclear launchers in or around Ukraine, command and control sites, basically making further Russian advances in Ukraine untenable.
“For Putin, a tactical nuke could stop the war and bring all to the negotiating table and Russia could hang onto the southern area they now have.
“Many ‘hope’ that if Putin pressed the red button, there are people in the Kremlin who would then stand up and depose him.”
It comes just days after State-owned television channel Russia-1 broadcast a mock-up clip showing Russia wiping out Ireland with a nuclear weapon.
The clip was introduced by Dmitry Kiselyov, a close associate of Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Mr Kiselyov speaks in the video of an attack on the “British Isles” as footage plays of the islands of Ireland and Britain being wiped off the map by a nuclear weapon.
Another clip shows Mr Kiselyov discussing Russia using a nuclear underwater drone, an experimental Russian weapon, to “plunge the British Isles into the depths of the sea.”
The clip has been slammed by the Irish government with the Taoiseach labelling the clip "worrying".
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