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Former US military commanders say Putin would be stopped from launching nuclear weapons by his own staff if he ordered a nuclear strike.
As Russia becomes increasingly bogged down in its disastrous war in Ukraine, fears are growing that Putin's patience will snap and he may consider the once unthinkable option of launching a nuke.
However, General Ben Hodges a former commander of US Army in Europe, believes any such order would be refused by the adults in the room while retired British Army officer Colonel Richard Kemp agreed, saying Putin "would have a problem" if he gave the order.
READ MORE: Desperate Putin is now conscripting Russian mothers for suicide missions on frontline
The US is currently the only nation to have ever used nuclear weapons in conflict, when it dropped two nuclear bombs on Japan towards the end of the Second World War.
Today, however, the power of nuclear weapons have vastly increased, with a nuclear conflict likely to see total annihilation for the planet.
General Hodges and Colonel Kemp agreed there is little battlefield advantage to be gained from going nuclear, even if Putin were to use a tactical nuke – the name given to a smaller sized nuclear weapon which is not designed to wipe out an entire nation.
General Hodges told The Sun: "What I see is the Russians thinking, 'to what advantage do we get? None'."
He went on: "The Russian General Staff is professional enough to know that if they use a tactical nuclear weapon – it would be impossible for the US to not become further involved.
"So when you think about if there is no battlefield advantage, you only get the downside."
While a nuclear attack on Ukraine would no doubt decimate the country, the impact on Russia would also be huge and likely leave Putin completely isolated internationally.
There is an extensive chain of command in place to green light a nuclear strike, with an order given by Putin then being transmitted to the General Staff.
Once it reaches them, the group of senior officials headed by General Valery Gerasimov make arrangements for the strike before they then have to transmit authorisation codes to the weapons commanders who are then tasked with carrying out the order.
Colonel Kemp told The Sun: "Even if he decides he is right in a corner and has no other options and wants achieve something by nuclear release, I think he might find he is up against a problem with the chain of command.
"It is not just him who has the final say – there are about five levels of people who have to go along with it.
Its quite possible among those five there are people who won’t go along with it."
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