TheCable

Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine’s former president, says the Russian military will not be willing to launch a nuclear attack if ordered to do so by Vladimir Putin.

Russian troops have been advancing further into Ukraine in recent days while Putin has put his country’s nuclear forces on high alert.

In an interview with ABC News, Yushchenko said Putin’s nuclear plants make him feel like a “macho man”.

Yushchenko said despite his threats, Putin will not find anybody to carry out his bidding.

“In his rhetoric right now he uses the word nuclear threats abundantly,” he said.

“His occupation of Chernobyl and Zaporizhzhia nuclear plants is his idea of being a macho man that he is so strong that he can exploit nuclear threats to achieve his goals.

“I do not think that we’ll find any people in the Russian military even as disorganised as it is or even any two officers who will be willing to turn the key to launch nuclear rockets toward Ukraine or anywhere else.

“Putin is in an absolute, extreme isolation and that is why, every day, his reputation as the Russian president declines and his political beliefs, including nuclear inclinations, are devaluing fast.”

Yushchenko said in its 30 years of existence, Ukraine has never been as united as it is now, saying that “tragedy and pain can unite”.

He added that “a totalitarian Russia” cannot defeat Ukraine “in terms of spirit, of understanding”.