EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has said that a nuclear attack on Ukraine would result in Russian forces being “annihilated” by forces of the West.

Borrell explained at the opening of a Diplomatic Academy in Brussels, “Putin is saying he is not bluffing. Well, he cannot afford bluffing, and it has to be clear that the people supporting Ukraine and the European Union and the Member States, and the United States and Nato are not bluffing either. Any nuclear attack against Ukraine will create an answer, not a nuclear answer but such a powerful answer from the military side that the Russian Army will be annihilated.”

While Russia seems happy to keep the nuclear option on the table, president Vladimir Putin is not stupid – and has to know the hell that would rain down on his forces and country if they chose to do the unimaginable and launch a nuclear attack.

While it feels like a repeat of the Cold War, with neither side wanting to blink, the world is poised and ready to crush Russia if they make the wrong step.

And Putin knows it.