A former British government security advisor has warned that Vladimir Putin is getting “increasingly desperate” and he could launch “some kind of missile strike on a NATO base.”

Lord Ricketts issued a warning that Putin has become “increasingly desperate to choke off the flow of arms” to Ukraine and could attack convoys and aircraft heading from a NATO country.

Lord Ricketts told the BBC that he fears that Putin’s war is close to “an angry stalemate, where Russia will hold on to quite a large part of the country” as President Volodymyr Zelensky and his government will not agree a settlement deal with Moscow.

Read more on Russia-Ukraine war:

NATO could now intervene as Russia has crossed the ‘red line as they ‘use chemical weapons in Mariupol’

Russia are using ‘banned weapons of mass destruction’ which drop ‘delayed-detonation mines’ in the Kharkiv region

Putin sends in a General with a ‘resume that includes brutality against civilians’ and Ukraine expects ‘more of the same’

Finland under threat as Putin moves thousands of troops and missile systems to Finnish border

The former government security advisor warned there could be conflict for many “years and years to come” as the Ukrainians will launch a guerrilla war which will become an “open wound in the middle of Europe.”

“I suppose what President Putin wants us all to fear is that he might want to use a nuclear weapon in Ukraine, which would be a momentous escalation and ensure Russia was isolated around the world,” Lord Ricketts said.

“More likely, I think what they’re looking at is some way of preventing or limiting this flow of arms into Ukraine, keeping the Ukrainian Armed Forces going.

“So we may see attacks on convoys or aircraft bringing the arms in from the west.

“At worst, possibly, some kind of missile strike on a base in NATO, where the arms for Ukraine were being prepared.

“And that will certainly pose the NATO countries with a real dilemma.”

President Zelensky said that it is important for the Ukrainian forces not to allow Russia not to win any territory in eastern Ukraine as he does not “trust” Putin.

Speaking to CNN he said, “This is why it is very important for us to not allow them, to stand our ground, because this battle… it can influence the course of the whole war.

“I don’t trust the Russian military and Russian leadership.

“That is why we understand that the fact that we fought them off and they left, and they were running away from Kyiv — from the north, from Chernihiv and from that direction … it doesn’t mean if they are able to capture Donbas, they won’t come further towards Kyiv.”