Vladimir Putin could deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine amid growing battlefield losses and no victory in sight in a move that could spark a Third World War, a nuclear expert has warned.
Dr Bahram Ghiassee, a nuclear scientist, said Putin could view deploying tactical nukes as a 'justified' escalation of the Ukraine war if the Russian despot feels his forces face defeat amid a continued supply of Western weapons to Kyiv.
If Putin does unleash his arsenal of 1,816 tactical nuclear weapons on Ukraine, the radioactive fallout from such a strike would threaten the lives of those living in NATO countries such as Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, Dr Ghiassee warned.
These nuclear weapons can have yields of up to 100 kilotons - five times the amount of the American atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
Dr Ghiassee, an Associate Fellow at the Henry Jackson Society think tank, said the UK and NATO could view this as a radiological attack on member states and force them to declare war on Russia under Article 5 of the military alliance's treaty.
The UK and its NATO allies could respond by deploying their own advanced nuclear missiles at Russia in a move that would spark a Third World War.
'The direct involvement of the UK deploying its advanced nuclear missiles, under the auspices of NATO, could lead to a major nuclear confrontation in Europe,' Dr Ghiassee said in a report exclusively seen by the MailOnline.
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