Putin now has ‘no option’ but to use tactical NUKES in Ukraine, says Kremlin’s ex space agency chief

A prominent Russian politician who once commanded Russia’s space agency has said that Vladimir Putin now has “no choice” but to use tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

Dmitry Rogozin – the former head of Roscosmos who was also deputy prime minister – declared in a recent video that Moscow faces defeat in its war with Kiev unless the dictator unleashes his nuclear weapons.

“It must be said that according to our doctrine we have every right to use tactical nuclear weapons,” said Rogozin, who was dressed in military uniforms with a custom AK-47 assault rifle slung over his shoulder.

“That’s exactly what they’re there for: this great equalizer.

“For now, there is a clear disparity in armed forces and conventional weapons in favor of the enemy,” he said, noting the West’s support for Ukraine’s war effort.

‘Therefore the best method of destruction [Ukraine’s] The counter-offensive is the use of tactical nuclear weapons, of course with understandable consequences.

“I think there’s no other option at the moment.”

Rogozin’s alarming statements come just one day after the Kremlin suffered a drone strike in what some say was an assassination attempt on Putin.

Until last year, Rogozin was in charge of testing Putin’s array of giant nuclear weapons – the “Satan 2” or “Sarmat” intercontinental ballistic missiles – and Moscow’s array of space satellites.

But he has since become a mouthpiece for the Russian war effort, appearing in images and videos, ostensibly from close to the front lines in Russian-occupied territory in Ukraine.

In his latest video, Rogozin admitted that Russian forces face major difficulties in Ukraine’s expected imminent counter-offensive unless Putin goes nuclear.

He clearly suggested that Moscow faces defeat at the hands of a better equipped enemy – a stunning admission given Russia’s numerical superiority in troop numbers.

“I want to say that we are waiting for the [Ukrainian] offensive, we are ready,” he said.

“We understand that it will be very difficult because they have a lot of power on their side, but no one on our side will give up their position.”

With the war in Ukraine well into its second year, Putin has begun to raise the bar, scrapping the only remaining nuclear weapons treaty with the US and recently promising to send nuclear weapons to Belarus.

But Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenary group responsible for much of Russia’s limited success in Ukraine, has ruled out a nuclear response to the drone attack on the Kremlin.

Ignoring the possibility of using nuclear weapons on Ukrainian soil, the Wagner chief denounced Moscow’s time-tested approach to rattling nuclear sabers, arguing that Western nations will stop taking Russia seriously.

“We look like clowns threatening to destroy a kid’s drone,” he said.

Rogozin, a former Russian ambassador to NATO, tried to frighten the West earlier in the war with threats about Russian nuclear weapons.

He was injured in December when Ukraine hit a grenade at his 59th birthday party at a hotel in Donetsk.

Two men were killed and the pro-Putin war enthusiast suffered significant injuries, forcing him to be airlifted to Moscow last month.

Now Rogozin – promised a future state job by Putin – is in the war zone at the head of a group of military advisers and the Royal Wolves research and technology center.

He leads a training effort in electronic warfare and drone control.

Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin continues to expand Russia’s nuclear capabilities despite regular foot soldiers complaining about a lack of equipment, ammunition and armor on the front lines in Ukraine.

Moscow now plans to launch a new fleet of submarines in the Pacific next year that will carry deadly Poseidon nuclear missiles.

Since the Russian despot invaded Ukraine, Putin’s propagandists have continued to threaten the West with a nuclear holocaust — and the rhetoric has continued to escalate in recent months.

According to the Russian news agency TASS, the division of submarines to carry these underwater doomsday torpedoes could be ready to launch in late 2024 or in the first half of 2025.

Moscow said in January it had produced the first set of the devastating Poseidon weapons — a mix of torpedo and drone — four years after Putin announced the fundamentally new type of strategic nuclear weapon, confirming it would have its own nuclear power supply.

In late March, Russia said that coastal infrastructure for the submarines that would carry the Poseidon torpedoes will be completed on the Kamchatka Peninsula, where the Russian Pacific Fleet’s ballistic nuclear missile submarine base is located.

“The decision to form a division of special nuclear submarines in Kamchatka has been made,” TASS quoted an unidentified defense source as saying.

“We’re talking about December 2024 or the first half of 2025.”

Russia has claimed that the deadly Poseidon weapons – consisting of a tube 20 meters long with a diameter of almost 1.8 meters – cannot be stopped by its current nuclear defenses.

Once launched, it acts like a drone where it can be remotely guided to its target.