Ukraine could soon start to develop their own nuclear weapons to end the Russian invasion, a war expert has suggested.
Dr Paul Maddrell, an international history and international relations lecturer at Loughborough University, has advised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to either build an arsenal or buy weapons in from other nations.
It comes as the war in Ukraine rages on, with four months of fighting leading to the deaths of thousands of Ukrainian civilians and soldiers during the relentless bombardment of the country's cities.
Dr Maddrell believes Vladimir Putin's actions are designed to dismember Ukraine, weaken its military and reverse the expansion of NATO.
And he believes the establishment of a Ukrainian nuclear arsenal could be the best method of preventing Putin from continuing to pursue those goals, the Daily Star reports.
Speaking on Loughborough University's Besieged: A podcast about Putin’s Invasion of Ukraine, Dr Maddrell said: "If I were the president of Ukraine, I'd strongly be considering developing nuclear weapons. Ukraine had nuclear weapons in the 1990s when the Soviet Union collapsed.
"There were nuclear weapons on Ukrainian territory, which became Ukraine's and Ukraine agreed to give them up to denuclearise Europe and make it a safer place. Well, if it had kept those nuclear weapons, Putin would not have invaded because he would have faced a nuclear attack on his country.
"Zelensky, if he's prevented from joining NATO, may well think that the only way forward is to develop nuclear weapons – as he may do."
The lecturer added that he felt the US might sell Ukraine nuclear weapons at a reduced price and that he felt Putin's actions in Ukraine had damaged Russia's chances of becoming a satellite state of China.
The news comes after a Russian missile attack in an apartment block and a sports centre in the Odesa region of southern Ukraine killed at least 21 people in the early hours of Friday morning.
Images show emergency services searching through the rubble for survivors in Belgorod-Dniester after missiles were fired by Russian aircraft coming from the direction of the Black Sea.
However, Russian forces abandoned the strategic Black Sea outpost of Snake Island on Thursday in a victory for Ukraine that could loosen the grip of Russia's blockade on Ukrainian ports.
Russia said it had decided to withdraw from the outcrop off Ukraine's southwestern coast as a "gesture of goodwill" to show Moscow was not obstructing UN attempts to open a humanitarian corridor allowing grains to be shipped from Ukraine.
