Russians turning up on frontline ‘without weapons’ – but ‘biggest threat’ is what Putin could do to nuclear power stations
A former head of the British Army’s chemical weapons unit has told Sky News we cannot assume Vladimir Putin will not launch some kind of nuclear attack – and that it could come in several different ways.
Hamish De Bretton-Gordon said: “It would be unbelievable for Putin to use tactical nuclear weapons. However, Putin keeps doing the unbelievable.
“So, I don’t think we can assume away the fact that he won’t use these sort of weapons.
“After all, he appointed Sergei Surovikin – General Armageddon, as he’s known – who I saw very close up in Syria over the last few years.”
Mr De Bretton-Gordon added that although it would be “crazy” for Moscow to use biological and nuclear weapons, he warned “we need to take them seriously”.
“The talk recently about dirty bombs really is the most important area for us to focus on, because Putin has said he’s going to switch the lights out, and turn off the heating in Ukraine, and all the attacks over the last few days have really reinforced that,” he said.
“But at the beginning of this war, 60% of that electricity and heat came from nuclear.
“I’m really concerned that the Russians are losing this war, and Putin cannot afford to lose it.
“The biggest threat I think is further turning off the power and turning off nuclear power stations, which Putin has said he’ll do.
“To do that, he needs to blow them up or set them on fire.”
Russian soldiers being deployed with ‘very minimal training’
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What is a tactical nuclear weapon?
Mr De Bretton-Gordon’s comments came as retired Air-Vice Marshal Sean Bell explained to Sky News that some Russian soldiers are turning up on the frontline without weapons.
“The Russians announced the other day that they completed their partial mobilisation of about 300,000 soldiers but of course, they need to get those to the frontline as fast as possible,” he said.
“They’re getting there with very minimal training. It turns out now some are turning up to the frontlines without weapons. Some are turning up with very old weapons.
“The AK-m assault weapon was first introduced in 1959. It’s the most ubiquitous of the Kalashnikov class of weapons and that’s what seems to be given to the new recruits.
Read more:
Putin ‘would be crazy’ to use nuclear weapon
“Yet that was replaced by the AK 75 back in the ’70s, that’s what the mainstream of Russia uses.
“It was replaced because it uses a smaller bullet with the same charge, which goes faster and is more accurate.
“And it’s not just the equipment, it’s the logistics challenge – you’ve got two different weapons, two different spares and two different lots of ammunition.
“I’m sure winter can’t come quick enough for the Russians.”
New pictures show the moment of impact as an Israeli missile hit a Beirut apartment block and exploded.
The block was one of five buildings destroyed by airstrikes on Friday alone.
Israel launched airstrikes in the southern suburbs of Beirut in a fourth consecutive day of intense attacks.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
An Associated Press photographer captured a sequence of images showing an Israeli bomb approaching and hitting a multi-storey apartment building in Beirut’s Tayouneh area.
Richard Weir, a senior crisis, conflict and arms researcher at Human Rights Watch, reviewed the close-up photos to determine what type of weapon was used.
“The bomb and components visible in the photographs, including the strake, wire harness cover, and tail fin section, are consistent with a Mk-84 series 2,000-pound class general purpose bomb equipped with Boeing’s joint directed attack munition tail kit,” he told AP.
Pics: AP
Smoke covers a building that collapses following the strike. Pic: AP
Deadly strikes as bombardment stepped up
Israel stepped up its bombardment this week – an escalation that has coincided with signs of movement in US-led diplomacy towards a ceasefire.
The Israeli military said its fighter jets attacked munitions warehouses, a headquarters and other Hezbollah infrastructure. It issued a warning on social media identifying buildings ahead of the strikes.
Meanwhile, an Israeli airstrike killed five members of the same family in a home in Ain Qana in the southern province of Nabatiyeh, Lebanon’s state media said.
The report said a mother, father and their three children were killed but didn’t provide their ages.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Three other Israeli strikes killed six people and wounded 32 in different parts of Tyre province on Friday, also in south Lebanon, the report said.
Video footage also showed a building being struck and turning into a cloud of rubble and debris that billowed into Horsh Beirut, the city’s main park.
Residents check the site of the airstrike in Tayouneh, Beirut. Pic: AP
More than 3,200 people have been killed in Lebanon during 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah – most of them since mid-September.
About 27% of those killed were women and children, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
Israel dramatically escalated its bombardment of Lebanon from September, vowing to cripple Hezbollah and end its barrages in Israel.
Friday’s strikes come as Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister has asked Iran to help secure a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hezbollah.
The prime minister appeared to urge Ali Larijani, a top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, to convince the militant group to agree to a deal that could require it to pull back from the Israel-Lebanon border.
Iran is a main backer of Hezbollah and for decades has been funding and arming the Lebanese militant group.
On Thursday, Eli Cohen, Israel’s energy minister and a member of its security cabinet, said that prospects for a ceasefire with Lebanon were the most promising since the conflict began.
The Washington Post reported Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was rushing to advance a Lebanon ceasefire to deliver an early foreign policy win to his ally, US President-elect Donald Trump.
“Super high-IQ revolutionaries” who are willing to work 80+ hours a week are being urged to join Elon Musk’s new cost-cutting department in Donald Trump’s incoming US government.
The X and Tesla owner will co-lead the Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
And in a post on X, the official DOGE account put out a call to arms for people to sign up and help “dismantle government bureaucracy”.
The post said: “We are very grateful to the thousands of Americans who have expressed interest in helping us at DOGE.
“We don’t need more part-time idea generators.
“We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting.
“If that’s you, DM this account with your CV. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants.”
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Elon Musk speaking at an event held at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Pic: AP Photo/Alex Brandon
In a reply to an interested party, Mr Musk suggested the lucky applicants would be working for free.
“Indeed, this will be tedious work, make lost of enemies & compensation is zero,” the world’s richest man wrote.
“What a great deal!”
When announcing the new department, President-elect Donald Trump said Mr Musk and Mr Ramaswamy “will pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies”.
Mr Musk has previously made clear his desire to see cuts to “government waste” and in a post on his X platform suggested he could axe as many as three-quarters of the more than 400 federal departments in the US, writing: “99 is enough.”
At least 10 people have been killed after a fire broke out at a retirement home in northern Spain in the early hours of this morning, officials have said.
A further two people were seriously injured in the blaze at the residence in the town of Villafranca de Ebro in Zaragoza, according to the Spanish news website Diario Sur.
Two people remain in a critical condition following the blaze. Pic: AP
They remain in a critical condition, while several others received treatment for smoke inhalation.
Firefighters were alerted to the blaze at the residence – the Jardines de Villafranca – at 5am (4am UK time) on Friday.
Several residents were treated for smoke inhalation. Pic: AP
Those who were killed in the fire died from smoke inhalation, Spanish newspaper Heraldo reported.
The residence is home to 82 elderly residents.
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The blaze started in one of the rooms, Fernando Beltran, the national government’s top official in the region, told reporters.
All of the victims were elderly residents, he added.
Relatives wait for news outside the care home. Pic: AP
Fire crews, paramedics and police officers remain on site, said a spokesperson for the regional government of Aragon who confirmed the fatalities.
It took firefighters several hours to extinguish the blaze, they said.
The cause of the fire is unknown and is being investigated.
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