A desperate Vladimir Putin may “escalate” the Ukraine invasion as the only way out and could even use nuclear weapons, a former NATO commander said.
Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has seen the Russian forces suffer far greater losses than many expected and fail to make significant inroads into their neighbouring country.
At the Victory Day celebrations in Moscow on Monday, Putin cut a sombre figure as he was unable to announce the breakthroughs he would have wanted.
And with the pressure growing, Sir James Everard, a former NATO Deputy Supreme Allied Commander in Europe said that Putin could “significantly escalate” the invasion with over 600,000 troops or even choose the nuclear option.
He said that the Russian president is now under threat from army generals due to the failure so far in Ukraine.
"He is in a terrible place. It was entirely of his own making," Sir James said. "I can't see him achieving his objectives without escalating conventionally."
He also referred to a Telegram statement from the Wagner group which said Russia would need “600,000 to 800,000 men” to defeat Ukraine. The Wagner mercenary group allegedly has close ties to Moscow.
Sir James said that a nuclear attack on Ukraine remains a problem even though using "human logic" it might seem crazy and it would also represent a "grand strategic failure".
But he added: "Where Putin has an advantage over the West is that he has a family of nuclear weapons. From the very small to the big city destroyers. In the UK, we have the city destroyers, but not the small ones. Perhaps for Putin, nuclear escalation isn't as big as we see it to be. I still think it would be horrific."
At the same time Joe Biden said on Monday he is worried that Putin does not have a way out of the Ukraine war, and the US president said he was trying to figure out what to do about that.
Biden, speaking at a political fundraiser in a Washington suburb, said Putin had mistakenly believed the invasion of Ukraine would break up NATO and break up the European Union.
Instead, the United States and many European countries have rallied to Ukraine's side.
Russia's assault on Kyiv was beaten back in March by strong Ukrainian resistance.
Russia, which calls the invasion "a special military operation," poured more troops into Ukraine for a huge offensive last month in the eastern part of the country but its gains have been slow.
Biden said Putin is a very calculating man and the problem he worries about now is that the Russian leader "doesn't have a way out right now, and I'm trying to figure out what we do about that."
