Chechen president suggests Putin use nuclear weapons in Ukraine

Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov said that Moscow should consider using a low-yield nuclear weapon in Ukraine.

Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov said on Saturday that Moscow should consider using a low-yield nuclear weapon in Ukraine after another defeat on the battlefield.

"In my personal opinion, tougher measures should be taken, tantamount to declaring martial law in border areas and using low-yield nuclear weapons, " Kadyrov wrote in a telegram message criticizing Russian leaders for abandoning the city of Lyman in eastern Ukraine.

Kadyrov was speaking a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the annexation of four Ukrainian regions, including Donetsk, which includes Liman, and placed them under the Russian nuclear umbrella, saying that Moscow would defend the territories it controlled "with all our strength and means."

Russia has the world's largest nuclear arsenal, which includes low-yield tactical nuclear weapons equipped for use against hostile armies.

Other senior Putin allies, including former President Dmitry Medvedev, have indicated that Russia may need to resort to nuclear weapons, but Kadyrov's call has been the most urgent and outspoken.

The powerful ruler of the Chechnya region is a staunch supporter of the war in Ukraine, as Chechen forces formed part of the vanguard of the Russian army there.

Kadyrov is widely believed to be personally close to Putin, who appointed him to rule troubled Chechnya in 2007.

In his letter, Kadyrov described Colonel-General Alexander Lapin, the commander of the Russian forces fighting at Lyman, as "modest" and indicated that he should be demoted to a soldier and stripped of his honors.

"Due to a lack of basic military support and support, today we have given up several communities and a large part of the land," he said.

Kadyrov said that during his conversation two weeks ago with Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the Russian General Staff, he discussed the possibility of defeat at Lyman, but Gerasimov denounced the idea.

On Saturday, the Russian Defense Ministry announced the withdrawal from Lyman, a major stronghold and logistics center for Russian forces in Ukraine's Donetsk region, saying that Ukrainian advances were threatening its units with being besieged.

The withdrawal is the latest episode of Russia's humiliation on the battlefield, after its forces were expelled from the Kharkiv region in a lightning counterattack by Ukraine last month.

After Russia's defeat in Kharkiv, Kadyrov said that he would have to "go to the (political) leadership of the country and explain to them the situation on the ground" unless urgent changes were made in the conduct of the war.

Putin said last week that he is not cheating when he says he is ready to defend the "territorial integrity" of his country with all available means. Washington says it will respond decisively to any use of nuclear weapons and has made it clear to Moscow "the catastrophic consequences" it would face if they were used.