Putin will not deploy nuclear weapons in Ukraine- to Russia’s ambassador to the UK.

According to Russia’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, the country’s tactical nuclear weapons would not be used against Ukraine.

According to Andrei Kelin, nuclear weapons are strictly controlled in Russia’s military and are not deployed in wars like the one in Ukraine.

Putin placed his nuclear weapons on high alert three months ago, in what many saw as a threat after criticizing Nato and the West, according to the BBC.

At the time, Britain’s Defence Secretary Ben Wallace described it as a diversion tactic away from the failures of its delayed invasion of Ukraine.

Russia is thought to have around 2,000 tactical nuclear weapons.

Tactical nuclear weapons can travel short distances, unlike ‘strategic’ nuclear weapons which can go farther and are much more closely linked to the prospect of nuclear war.

Ambassador Kelin has denied Russia shelled civilians in Ukraine and insists claims of war crimes in Bucha are ‘a fabrication’.

He added: ‘The mayor of Bucha in his initial statement has confirmed that Russian troops has left, everything is clean and calm, the town in a normal state.

‘Nothing is happening, no bodies are on the street. But next, after it has been done – but anyway…

‘In our view it is a fabrication. It is used just to interrupt negotiations,” the ambassador replied.’

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has previously insisted pictures of bodies strewn in the streets of Bucha were ‘staged’ – a claim contradicted by numerous eyewitnesses.