12 November 2024, 06:09 | Updated: 12 November 2024, 07:34
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Vladimir Putin was so close to launching nuclear missiles in October 2022 that crisis meetings were held in Britain over the potential fallout, according to reports.
Doomed PM Liz Truss spent the last days of her premiership studying weather maps after reports from America suggested Putin could launch a tactical nuke in Ukraine.
Truss’ team feared radioactive material launched into the atmosphere could have travelled the 1,700 miles to the UK, according to the Sun.
US intelligence officials allegedly believed there was a 50 per cent chance Russia could launch the attack over the Black Sea in the months after it invaded Ukraine.
In a new book on Truss’ failed premiership, it is claimed the government spent “numerous hours studying satellite weather data and wind directions” amid fears the “wrong weather patterns” would have a “direct fall-out effect on Britain”.
These reports are supported by Watergate journalist Bob Woodward, who writes that the White House believed there was a 50 per cent chance Putin would launch atomic weapons at Ukraine in 2022.
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Just weeks prior to these meetings, President Joe Biden had said the world was as close to nuclear war as it had been since the Cuban Missile Crisis.
It comes as the Kremlin has denied reports that Donald Trump spoke to Vladimir Putin and that he urged him not to escalate the war in Ukraine.
Russian government spokesman Dmitry Peskov called news that the US president-elect warned Putin of the United States’ sizeable military force stationed in Europe were “pure fiction”.
It had also been reported that the two leaders also discussed a path to wider peace in Europe as well as agreed to a later call to finalise a plan to end the war in Ukraine.
Mr Peskov said: “This is the clearest example of quality of information sometimes published even in fairly reputable publications. It is entirely inaccurate. This is pure fabrication; it is simply false information.”
Two Ukrainian sources told the Washington Post that Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government knew of the call and did not object to it taking place.
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Mr Trump’s communications director Steven Cheung said: “We do not comment on private calls between President Trump and other world leaders.”
Donald Trump’s historic return to the White House could dramatically alter the balance of the world stage, with the Republican promising sweeping action in a second administration.
“I’m not going to start wars, I’m going to stop wars,” vowed Trump in his victory speech.
“We had no wars, for four years we had no wars. Except we defeated ISIS,” Trump says.
Trump has repeatedly cast doubt on continuing the US’ ongoing support for Ukraine which was established under Biden.