Six steps to Armageddon: In a chilling account, top military expert explains how Putin could launch nuclear strike if faces further humiliation in Ukraine

There may still be some Russian soldiers who believe their president’s myth about Ukraine being a Nazi state, but increasingly they must wonder why they are enduring considerable risk and awful conditions,' he wrote in an article for London-based defence think tank the Royal United Services Institute. He claimed there had already been 'some evidence of near-mutiny' with the sudden evacuation of Kharkiv in the west bearing 'all the hallmarks of a rout, with troops abandoning their positions in a hurry and leaving equipment and personal effects behind'.