Russia is not in desperate situation to go nuclear – Israeli military expert Handelman

He stated this on the Espreso TV channel.

"In principle, the Russian-Ukrainian war is actually going on now, and it is not a fact that Russia is in such a desperate situation to use nuclear weapons. Because, of course, to sharply raise the escalation bar against the West, on the one hand, we can say that the West will be afraid and will negotiate, but what if it is not afraid?" he said.

The expert noted that, in general, nuclear weapons are a thing that should not be just manipulated

"Therefore, for the most part, these are just theoretical talks for now, because it does not seem that a war for Russia would be something so extreme and terrible that it would be necessary to resort to nuclear weapons," he added.

• On September 1, Russia's Sarmat strategic missile system was allegedly put on alert. The system fires an intercontinental missile that can carry a nuclear warhead.
• On September 7, former US Ambassador to NATO Kurt Volker said that if Russia uses nuclear weapons in Ukraine, the West's response will not necessarily be nuclear.