Ukraine-Russia war latest: Russian Navy officer ‘killed after bomb hidden in rubbish bin’ explodes in Crimea

Nobel laureate and former chief editor of newspaper Novaya Gazeta, Dmitry Muratov, said that Russia cannot claim victory in Ukraine because the war has devastated both countries, and that Ukraine may be destroyed but cannot be conquered.

He told the BBC: “There will never be ‘victory’. Because what has been going on for nearly five years – no matter how it ends – can no longer be considered a victory.

“It cannot be a victory when two Slavic nations have ripped a million people to shreds. Or more than a million.”

He said: “It seems to me that the situation with Ukraine now is this: you can destroy it, but you cannot conquer it. What do I mean by destroy? Continued escalation all the way to the use of a nuclear weapon.”

He continued: “All those political experts who say ‘Putin thinks this’ or ‘Putin is scared of that’…they’re all charlatans.

“It’s in the same league as astrology. Nobody knows what’s going on in Vladimir Putin’s head. And I don’t know.

“I see things only as a journalist. I study big data. And since the beginning of the year, the need to use nuclear weapons has been mentioned more than 500 times. When wackos say this, I pay no attention. But I’ve heard it discussed on state TV. And at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, a state-run event, one of the speakers talked up the use of nuclear weapons as something favourable, something good.”