Saturday 5 November 2022 10:16 PM Putin's deranged Hiroshima threat in conversation with Macron trends now

Russian leader Vladimir Putin has alarmed Western leaders by referencing the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in a conversation with French president Emmanuel Macron, diplomatic sources have said.

According to the sources, Putin expressed the view that the bombings – which triggered the Japanese surrender and the end of the Second World War – demonstrated that ‘you don’t need to attack the major cities in order to win’.

The United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively.

The bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians. Japan surrendered to the Allies on August 15.

The reported remarks come amid growing concern that the Russian leader could be prepared to use a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine, where Russian forces have suffered increasing setbacks in the conflict.

A source said: ‘Macron was distinctly alarmed. It sounded like a very heavy hint that Putin might detonate a tactical nuclear weapon in the east of Ukraine, while leaving Kyiv intact. That appeared to be the thrust of his remarks.’

A French government source told this newspaper: ‘The two presidents have undoubtedly discussed the risk of nuclear weapons use. Putin wants to get the message across that all options are on the table, in line with Russian doctrine relating to nuclear weapons.’

This newspaper revealed last week that during the final days of her time in Downing Street, Liz Truss became increasingly concerned that Putin might use a ‘battlefield’ nuclear weapon in Ukraine – to the extent that she became fixated with the weather forecast in case the wind blew a radioactive cloud over the UK.

Ms Truss had been told by the intelligence agencies that Putin might explode a weapon in the air above the Black Sea, which would show the West what he was capable of without triggering a full-scale nuclear war.

Officials had warned that Putin might ‘go nuclear’ after Ukrainian forces attacked the road bridge connecting Russia and Crimea, something the Russian president had said would ‘cross a red line’ and prompt ‘judgment day’.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky was told by his security services there was a ‘very high’ risk that Russia might use tactical nuclear weapons.

Putin warned that if Western forces endangered the ‘integrity’ of Russian territory then ‘we will certainly use all the means at our disposal’, adding: ‘This is not a bluff.’

On October 12, Mr Macron said in an interview that France would ‘evidently’ not use nuclear weapons in response to a Russian nuclear attack on Ukraine.

He said: ‘France has a nuclear doctrine that is based on the vital interests of the country and which are clearly defined. These would not be at stake if there was a nuclear ballistic attack in Ukraine or in the region.’

Mr Macron last spoke to Mr Zelensky on Tuesday, when he agreed to help boost Ukraine’s air defences. The French president’s last publicised phone call with Putin was on September 11 when Mr Macron ‘demanded a ceasefire in Ukraine, and restoration of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity’.

The revelation about the Hiroshima/Nagasaki comments came as Putin warned the residents of the Ukrainian city of Kherson to leave or face being forcibly deported to Russian-held territory.

Kyiv’s forces have been steadily advancing on the strategic port, which is the only major city gained by Moscow since its troops invaded in February.

At least 70,000 people are reported to have been moved already from Kherson, with Russian soldiers also reported to be leaving the city.

Putin said: ‘Those who still live in Kherson should certainly be removed from the area of the most dangerous hostilities.

‘Civilians should not suffer from shelling, from attacks, counter-attacks or something like that.’

Officials in Ukraine have admitted privately that they are wary, saying it could be an attempt to lure their troops into a trap.

Putin also claimed that 318,000 military recruits had signed up for duty during the recent mobilisation – exceeding his target of 300,000 – of which 49,000 were already involved in active fighting in Ukraine.

The Ministry of Defence said this weekend that Putin was planning to deploy special forces to execute his own troops if they retreat from the war in Ukraine – so-called ‘blocking units’ which ‘threaten to shoot their own retreating soldiers in order to compel offensives’.

A spokesman for the French government declined to comment.

The Russian embassy in London was approached for comment.

Putin’s threats to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine gives insight into the mind of a Russian fuhrer who’s realised he might just lose the war he stupidly started, writes author and historian ANDREW ROBERTS 

The news that Vladimir Putin has openly discussed using nuclear weapons against Ukraine with President Macron should shock but not surprise us.

The Russian dictator has crossed so many red lines in the course of this war – the indiscriminate bombing of civilian targets such as residential flats and hospitals, the repeated breaking of ceasefire agreements over humanitarian corridors, the use of white phosphorus and thermobaric weapons.

Then there’s the flattening by 500kg bombs of the Mariupol theatre where children had been sheltering (the word ‘children’ was prominently displayed in large Cyrillic Russian lettering), the deliberate use of rape and torture and the attempted disposal of the evidence in mass graves.

Little can genuinely shock us now. Yet we must examine our consciences and recognise that Putin’s threats to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine should indeed shock us all over again, however repulsively he has behaved so far.