Russia cannot win a nuclear war with the rest of the world and Vladimir Putin knows it, says foreign affairs analyst David Wright-Neville.

3AW Mornings’ international relations expert was asked for his thoughts on recent threats from the Russian leader that the use of nuclear weapons was on the table as the conflict with Ukraine drags on.

“They says it’s better to have a bad ‘small’ war, than a bad ‘big’ war, and if he goes down that nuclear track he has a bad big war on his hands (and) it is one they can’t win and he (Putin) knows that,” David Wright-Neville said.

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“But he’s gambling here,” Wright-Neville said.

“He is gambling that the nuclear saber-rattling will trigger enough concern in the West that people start pressuring western governments to stop assisting Ukraine, which would help him.

“It is really the western supplied weapons to Ukraine that are allowing the Ukrainians to achieve that upper hand.”

(Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)