Kremlin warns of nuclear war if the European Union backs Ukraine’s use of long-range weapons on Russian soil, escalating tensions to Cold War levels.

In the United States and Europe, there is growing uncertainty about how to counter Putin’s aggression without stoking a direct conflict with Russia.

A close ally of President Vladimir Putin warned Western governments on Thursday that a nuclear war would ensue if they gave the green light for Ukraine to use long-range Western weapons to strike targets deep inside Russia.

The explosion would be at an old Soviet test site first used 70 years ago in the Novaya Zemlya archipelago and could be used by Vladimir Putin as a warning to the West over Ukraine