Vladimir Putin has been described as “monkey with a grenade” and it is unlikely he will resort to using nuclear weapons in, the Ukraine’s Defence Minister said.

He said that the Russian president was unlikely start a nuclear war or even use tactical nuclear weapons as this would immediately endanger his relations with India and China.

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Putin has indicated he will use nuclear weapons if needed to defend Russia, however, Oleksii Reznikov said, “I don’t think they will use it. But again, when you have a monkey with a grenade for a neighbour you have to estimate all kinds of risks.”

The co-chair of the European Council on Foreign Relations, Carl Bildt, has hinted the series of constant embarrassing defeats for Russia’s forces will ultimately see Putin’s end.

Writing on Twitter, Bildt said, “Kherson right now – a picture Vladimir Putin said would never happen.

“It’s his third major defeat in this war – Kyiv, Kharkiv and now Kherson.

“At the end, he will lose the Kremlin as well.”

On peace talks Ukraine’s top prosecutor said he cannot see there being a return to peace talks with Russia as this is now not “possible.”

Andriy Kostin told the BBC, “I don’t think that the issue of resuming any negotiations is possible.”

When asked over the trouble the war is causing around the world, Kostin said, “People are suffering because of aggression of Putin into Ukraine.

“They don’t hear missiles. They don’t know what is bombing. They don’t know what is killing, rape, looting.”

Kostin acknowledged that as a result of Putin’s war in Ukraine that Europeans are being forced to pay higher prices and added, that “Ukrainians are paying by their lives for the same struggle.”