VLADIMIR Putin has boosted his nuclear warheads to a nine-year high in a chilling warning to Nato as tensions flare.
The dictator has ramped up his nuclear sabre-rattling in recent weeks and warned that the West putting troops into Ukraine “means war with Russia.”
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Kremlin crony Dmitry Medvedev meanwhile threatened to reduce Nato member Lithuania to “scorched earth” and wipe it “off the map”.
His warning came after the Baltic state said it was negotiating with Washington over the possible deployment of US nuclear weapons in the country.
Putin has now increased the number of nuclear warheads deployed to a nine-year high, warned the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
In the past year, the Kremlin has added 78 warheads to missiles and bombers, bringing its total to 1,796.
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There has been an increase in each year of the war against Ukraine.
In contrast, the US, Britain and France saw no rise in their deployment, with the European allies having 170 and 280 warheads respectively.
Putin, speaking at the BRICS summit in New Delhi, denied that he posed a threat to Nato members in Europe.
But the tyrant then warned: “Now they [the West] are talking about how they are thinking about bringing troops to the territory of Ukraine.
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“This means war with Russia.”
Putin – who once claimed he had no aggressive intentions against Ukraine – said he had no plan to invade or threaten existing Nato states in Europe.
He claimed: “There is no such threat, and there has never been.
“We are not threatening European countries, nor are we going to threaten them. Why would we?
“No one seems to even consider that we have no grounds for any conflict with Europe.”
Yet Medvedev, formerly Russia’s President, said the deployment of nuclear weapons in Lithuania, formerly part of the Soviet Union, could trigger a doomsday response from Putin.
He said: “They would like to amend their Constitution, which stated the non-nuclear nature of this large Baltic state, and thus open the door to the possible deployment of any weapons, including nuclear weapons.
“No one will stand up for them. Even if it becomes a scorched earth, no other [Western] countries will go to war for them.”
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“And the well-known Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty will not be implemented, everyone recognises this.
“Because if it is implemented, it will be a global catastrophe, planetary.
“They are not fools. But Lithuania will disappear from the world map.”
There are fears of a new Russian hybrid attack on Nato after a giant ammunition storage site burst into flames in Bulgaria.
A major blaze was seen lighting up the sky at the facility near Tsareva Livada village.
Secondary explosions were reported as flames were “moving from warehouse to warehouse,” said Gabrovo regional governor Kristina Sidorova.
Opposition MP Ivaylo Mirchev, co-leader of the pro-Western Yes, Bulgaria! party, linked the fire directly to Russia’s alleged hybrid sabotage campaign across Europe.
He said: “A few days ago we warned parliament that what Russia is doing in Leipzig is also happening in Bulgaria,” referring to a bomb-laden drone found at a German airport, which has been linked to Putin’s spooks.
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Russia staged yet more overnight strikes on civilians, with 16 wounded in Odesa, including a five-month-old baby.
A cruise missile obliterated the upper floors of a residential high-rise, with a children’s playground covered in debris.
In Kryvyi Rih, Volodymyr Zelensky’s birthplace, one person was killed and another was missing after a ballistic missile strike.
A woman, 64, and man, 37, were killed in Zaporizhzhia by Putin’s forces, who also claimed to have destroyed a military logistics hub in Dnipro.
Ukraine meanwhile used drones to attack a major Russian air force base and military airfield in Taganrog, igniting fires.
One target was a plant which services military planes including Russia’s A-50 airborne early warning and control aircraft.
Ukrainian drones also attacked a military-linked chemical plant in Tolyatti, Samara region.
It was the second Russian chemical manufacturer blitzed in just two days, as Kyiv continues to target Moscow’s depleted energy reserves.
It comes as Britain revealed Putin’s toll of shame from the war at half a million dead — more than the UK’s total losses in World War Two.
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