A senior US diplomat has raised chilling fears that Vladimir Putin could now “strike back now in unpredictable ways” as his troops are in tatters and he has all but lost his very own war in Ukraine.

Ukrainian Forces are delivering a powerful counterattack against Russian troops and they have liberated thousands of square kilometres of their territory.

Putin’s troops are dropping their weapons and they are running “s**t scared” to escape Ukrainian forces.

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Moscow has a further setback as the Russian Army flees another strategic position which is another blow for Vladimir Putin

During a panicked retreat they left behind all their weaponry knowing that they literally had “hours” to escape or be killed, wounded or captured.

Putin is now realising that he lost the war in Ukraine, which will could now make the Russian leader at his “most dangerous.”

Rose Gottemoeller, a former United States Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security said the Russians were never expecting an attack in the north east.

The senior diplomat said, “They have momentum on their side. I think the Russians were not expecting them to attack in the north east against Kharkiv.

“Everyone has been focused on the south east around Kherson. It looks like a textbook case of taking the Russians by surprise around Kharkiv.”

She told the BBC, “I fear they might strike back now in really unpredictable ways and ways that may even involve weapons of mass destruction.”

Gottemoeller was asked if Russia could launch a nuclear strike, she said, “Yes.

“I want to stress that I don’t believe the Russians will implicate their central strategic systems, their intercontinental ballistic missiles or submarine launched missiles that would strike at the United States, but we’ve been concerned from the outset of this crisis with Putin rattling the nuclear sabre, that he might put in play a nuclear demonstration strike, either a single strike over the Black Sea or perhaps a strike at a Ukrainian military facility in order to strike terror not only into the hearts of the Ukrainians but also the global partners and allies of Ukraine, who have been supporting Ukraine.

“The goal would be to try to get the Ukrainians, in their terror, to capitulate.

“I do worry about that kind of scenario at the moment and I think the Ukrainians seem well-prepared to stay the course, but we will all have to be ready to stay the course come what may.”

Speaking with the BBC on how to stop Russia from using nuclear weapons, she said,  “We’ve done an excellent job since the start of this crisis, sending a clear message to Moscow that is: No impunity, we know what you’re up to.

“You cannot get away with, for example, false flag operations. At the early part of this crisis we were very concerned that the Russians would engineer biological or chemical attacks against certain targets in Ukraine and blame them on the Ukrainians, so we were very clear, putting out our intelligence and saying: We know what you’re up to.

“So I think we need to be alert at this moment to the same type of possibilities on the Russian side.

“If it happens, I haven’t seen any evidence of it so far and I want to stress that, if there is a movement towards a weapons of mass destruction threat, I think we need to get it out and say clearly to the Russians: We know what you’re up to. No impunity here.”