Russia plays "nuclear card" again - military expert Zgurets

He said this on the Espreso TV channel.

"We see that the Russians have started to pull out the "nuclear card" again. In fact, they used such tactics again a couple of weeks ago. When there was information in the foreign press that Russia has a rather low threshold for the use of tactical nuclear weapons in terms of threats. Foreign experts began to evaluate scenarios. But this was a kind of information throw-in that Russia traditionally uses to influence European countries that it will use nuclear weapons. And politicians with weak nerves will start to panic and say that we should not move to any escalation, that is, not to transfer weapons to Ukraine," Zgurets explained.

According to the military expert, European countries are ready to raise the stakes of this game.

"Now it clearly fits into this scenario. But it is indicative that against this backdrop, France's initiative to erase any conditional lines that Russia may draw on the possibility of using NATO units on the territory of Ukraine, not yet combat, but extremely important, is the readiness of European countries to raise the stakes in this game. This is an extremely important trend that works in our favor. And Putin will now really use the arguments related to nuclear weapons. Nothing new," Zgurets emphasized.

• US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller called Russian President Vladimir Putin's statements about his readiness to use nuclear weapons inappropriate and said that the United States sees no reason to change the configuration of its nuclear forces.
• Russian dictator Vladimir Putin reacted to Ukraine's alleged attacks on the territory of the Russian Federation.