Vladimir Putin’s nuclear posturing has been dismissed as a ‘big attempt to distract away from his troubles in Ukraine’ by British ministers.
Boris Johnson branded the invasion a ‘colossal mistake’, as Downing Street was said to be considering the possibility that sanctions would bring down the Russian president’s regime.
Putin has put his forces on the highest nuclear alert level, with his officials blaming an intervention by Foreign Secretary Liz Truss for the escalation.
Her cabinet colleague Ben Wallace played down Putin’s ominous comments on Monday, and declared it part of a ‘battle of rhetoric.
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Yet Defence Secretary Mr Wallace did not rule out Putin launching a nuclear attack, after being asked on Sky News whether the Russian leader was ‘crazy enough’ to start a nuclear conflict.
‘I think he has certainly done a lot of irrational things recently’, he replied.
‘I’m not going to speculate on what he would or wouldn’t do, but that’s why we all keep our deterrents at a state of readiness in the West.’
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Meanwhile, ahead of meetings in Poland and Estonia on Tuesday, the Prime Minister told his cabinet on Monday: ‘It is becoming clearer with each day that Putin had made a colossal mistake believing that the guns of his tanks would be garlanded with roses when instead the Ukrainian people have put up a fierce resistance in defence of their homeland.’
It comes after the Russian leader upped the stakes in the Ukrainian invasion by increasing Russia’s readiness for nuclear warfare – and attempted to blame Ms Truss for the move.
On Sunday, Putin said he was putting Moscow’s nuclear forces on a ‘special regime of combat duty’ in response to ‘aggressive statements’ from Western powers.
Meanwhile, there have been suggestions that Putin’s brain has been ‘scrambled’ by isolation.
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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov added on Monday: ‘Statements were made by various representatives at various levels on possible altercations or even collisions and clashes between Nato and Russia.
‘We believe that such statements are absolutely unacceptable. I would not call the authors of these statements by name, although it was the British foreign minister.’
It was not immediately clear what statement by Ms Truss he was referring to.
Russia has also closed its airspace to planes from 36 countries, in response to sanctions from across the world
Yet British ministers have tried to play down the possibility of a nuclear clash.
Last night Boris Johnson also dismissed Putin’s announcement as a ‘distraction’ from struggle his troops are facing in Ukraine
The Prime Minister suggested his actions were more to do with the fact that his forces were meeting with ‘more resistance than the Kremlin had bargained for’.
Mr Wallace told BBC Breakfast that he understood the concerns about the warning made by the Russian leader, and revealed his own 12-year-old son called him worried about the step.
But he said: ‘We don’t see or recognise in the sort of phrase or the status he described as anything that is a change to what they have currently as their nuclear posture.
‘This is predominantly about Putin putting it on the table just to remind people, remind the world, that he has a deterrent.’
Mr Wallace added: ‘We will not do anything to escalate in that area, we will not do anything to feed any miscalculation, we take it very, very seriously.
‘But at the moment this is a battle of rhetoric that President Putin is deploying, and we just have to make sure we manage it properly.’
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