Yes we should worry, but the West must stand by the Ukrainian people

Editorial: As the bridge from Russia to Crimea is blown up, the Ukrainian president warns that Moscow is preparing its citizens for the use of nuclear weapons

The West’s policy cannot be determined by second-guessing the Kremlin (Getty)

Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, has warned that Russian officials have begun to “prepare their society” for the possible use of nuclear weapons. “That’s very dangerous,” he said. He is right, and he is also right to add that “they are not ready to do it” yet.

So far, as Lawrence Freedman, emeritus professor of war studies at King’s College London, has said, Vladimir Putin’s hints about the use of nuclear weapons have always been attached to warnings to the West not to interfere.

Although the Russian president’s mystical ramblings are sometimes unclear, or seem irrational, his talk last month about using “all the means at our disposal to protect Russia and our people” is consistent with longstanding Russian deterrence theory. It is more about deterring Nato countries from attacking Russia than it is about the use of battlefield nuclear weapons in an attempt to turn the tide of the “special operation” to defend what Mr Putin claims is Russian territory.