Western officials are carrying out “prudent planning” in the event that Russia launches nuclear weapons in Ukraine to prevent people from panicking.

Western government’s have started “prudent planning for a range of possible scenarios” for any potential nuclear strike in Ukraine, a Western official told the Guardian.

Governments are preparing for panic buying as seen during the Covid pandemic and the mass exodus of people fleeing cities or even their country.

Vladimir Putin’s threats of using weapons of mass destruction has been branded as “deeply irresponsible,” and officials say they do not see it as a “nuclear crisis.”

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The officials said that should Putin launch a nuclear strike in Ukraine this would be abhorrent.

Putin warned on Friday afternoon that the door is open for a “massive attack” and at the moment there is “no need for massive strikes on Ukraine now,” but “we will see.”

The Russian leader warned in a speech in Kazakhstan of a “global catastrophe” should there be any clashes with NATO making yet another reference to a nuclear war.

Putin added, “I hope that those who are saying this are smart enough not to take such steps.”

Kate Hudson, the general secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, said, “This ‘prudent planning’ harks back to the British government’s cold war-era Protect and Survive campaign – which was roundly condemned by CND as giving the false impression that a nuclear attack could be survived by whitewashing windows and other irrelevances.”

The Kremlin has also deployed 11 strategic “Blackjack” nuclear bombers a few miles from the Finnish and Norwegian borders as tensions remain on a knife edge as Vladimir Putin plans a nuclear attack in Europe.

Satellite images shows that Putin has gradually been increasing his strategic bombers at the Olenya airbase and there are seven Tu-160 bombers along with four Tu-95 jets on the Kola Peninsula.

There has been an “unusual deployment” of seven nuclear bombers at the airbase and there has been raised concerns over the build up above the Arctic Circle.

NATO hit back at Putin and “categorically warned Russia” that “even if there is an attempt to nuclear weapons, there will be a response.”

The Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Mykhailo Podoliak said in an interview with the German publication Bild, that “NATO is monitoring everything that is going on in Russia with nuclear weapons.

“And NATO categorically warns Russia that even if there is an attempt to use nuclear weapons, there will be a response.

“Today, Russia is gradually reducing its rhetorical threats with nuclear weapons. There is a protocol according to which nuclear states operate.”

He added, “If Russia is not stopped now, other countries will abandon the NPT [the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons], since any war against a nuclear state will lead to losses.

“These countries will try to find nuclear weapon components on the black market or elsewhere.

“Russia not only threatens Ukraine, it breaks the key element of global security.”