NATO 'warns Putin may test a NUKE on Ukraine's borders' as Kremlin 'insiders' claim he 'is preparing to make decisions about launching a tactical nuclear strike while hidden in a bunker outside Moscow'

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Vladimir Putin may have decided to detonate a nuke on Ukraine's borders, NATO is believed to have warned its members, in an escalation designed to terrify the West.

The warning comes as Putin was reportedly 'preparing to make key decisions about launching a tactical nuclear strike from a bunker' a long way outside Moscow.

The Kremlin has been attempting to signal to its NATO adversaries that it was willing to brandish its one remaining trump card lately even as the Russian army suffers defeat after defeat at the hands of the Ukrainian army. 

A senior defence source, however, said that a more likely demonstration of Putin’s readiness to use nuclear weapons could come in the Black Sea, The Times reports.

Such a move would shatter the longstanding taboo on deploying nuclear weapons and set the world on its deadliest course since the Cuban missile crisis of 1963. 

Putin - who will be 70 on Friday - has warned his closest family including gymnast partner Alina Kabaeva, 40, of the possibility of rapid evacuation, it is alleged.

Vladimir Putin is reported to be in a nuclear bunker far outside Moscow making preparations to relocate certain selected individuals in the event of nuclear war with NATO

Putin, 69, has warned his closest family including gymnast partner Alina Kabaeva, 40, of the possibility of rapid evacuation, it is alleged

Putin is reported to be mulling over using tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine as his invasion falls apart and his army gets routed by the Ukrainian army

He believes the bunker to be 'safe' from Western attack and top officials from his security apparatus and government will be moved to the secret location, according to General SVR channel.

The anti-Kremlin outlet - which claims inside knowledge from Putin's circle - has long claimed he is suffering acute health problems but offers no proof of its assertions.

Putin is believed to have several bunkers in Siberia, one linked to the massive new liquid case terminal at Sabetta on the Yamal peninsula and the other in the Altai Mountains. 

'Relatives and friends of the heads of state will be delivered to the bunker in advance,' stated a report from the channel today.

'Alina Kabaeva with [the couple's] children and two older daughters with children and cohabitants were warned about the possibility of urgent evacuation.

'But not everyone in the leadership of Russia was lucky.

'For example, Putin ordered, in the event of a nuclear threat, to evacuate the 'necessary minimum' of Russian officials'.

This would include prime minister Mikhail Mishustin, and the speaker of parliament Vyacheslav Volodin.

Cleaner-turned-multimillionaire Svetlana Krivonogikh, 47, now part-owner of a major Russian bank, one of the country's wealthiest women with an estimated £74 million financial and property fortune, is rumoured to be the mother of Putin's lovechild 

Luiza Rozova, also known as Elizaveta Krivonogikh, 19, is not invited to the bunker and nor a mystery son from a previous relationship, it was claimed

It would include the prosecutor-general, the leadership of the Security Council - but not ex-president Dmitry Medvedev - as well as key officials from his presidential administration and three security and spy services, the FSB, FSO, SVR with their families.

His defence ministry has different bunkers including in the Urals.

The supposed evacuation includes his eldest daughter Maria Vorontsova, 36, a geneticist, and Katerina Tikhonova, 35, a high-kicking 'rock'n'roll' dancer-turned-mathematician with their spouses and children.

But an unacknowledged Putin 'love child' Luiza Rozova, also known as Elizaveta Krivonogikh, 19, is not invited to the bunker and nor a mystery son from a previous relationship, it was claimed.

Rozova is the daughter of cleaner-turned-multimillionaire Svetlana Krivonogikh, 47, now part-owner of a major Russian bank, one of the country's wealthiest women with an estimated £74 million financial and property fortune.

No senators are on the bunker list, it was claimed.

'The Federation Council [senate] was not needed at all.

'Putin did not even need his own children from his mistresses - a girl and a boy, whom no one is going to evacuate.

Russia has a slightly larger nuclear weapon stockpile than the USA, and it is Putin's last card, now that his army has been proven ineffective and Europe is standing firm against his gas supply blackmail 

A Russian Tu-160 strategic bomber fires a cruise missile at test targets, during a military drills. Putin could use such a delivery system to fire a nuke at targets in Ukraine

'Of course, several friends of the president with their families and numerous servants of the bunker inhabitants will also be evacuated.'

Rumours swirled at the start of the war that Putin had retreated to a bunker in Siberia.

One special bunker is rumoured to fit up to 100,000 people, and is designed for him to rule Russia in the event of Armageddon.

As well as a location close to a major Gazprom facility in the far north of Russia, there is also rumoured to be a hi-tech bunker in the Altai Mountains hidden beneath a large dacha.

Putin is said by General SVR to have spent recent days in Siberia since his illegal annexation of swathes of eastern Ukraine.

His office said that yesterday [Mon] he had met with culture minister Olga Lyubimova in the Kremlin, a session which in fact took place earlier, said the channel.

Instead the president met shamans who performed a 'rite' for Putin involving a 'burning bird' which could signify 'victory and death,' leaving the interpretation 'to the president's painful fantasy', it claimed.

His defence minister Sergei Shoigu is known to have an interest in shamans, which are popular in his native Tuva region, as do other members of the Russian elite.

'Regardless of the shamanic ravings which the president takes quite seriously, Putin is preparing to make key decisions about launching a tactical nuclear strike from a bunker far from Moscow, and he believes to be safe.'

K-329 Belgorod nuclear submarine, Russia's largest, is capable of firing intercontinental ballistic missiles

Pictured: Russian Topol M intercontinental ballistic missile launcher. Putin has a variety of options open to him should he decide to launch a nuclear strike

The channel claimed: 'It is high time for Putin to be sent to a psychiatric hospital for compulsory treatment with strict supervision, but apparently everyone is interested in participating in the experiment of 'what happens if you give an idiot the opportunity to destroy the world?'

Separately, pro-Kremlin war reporter Andrey Rudenko threatened nuclear attack on the West.

'Residents of the USA saw a nuclear mushroom above Las Vegas,' he posted.

'The residents of Las Vegas were scared to death by the cloud shaped as a nuclear mushroom above the city.

'God shows these people it's worth stopping….otherwise, sooner or later, such mushrooms can grow all over the world…'

General SVR channel has long claimed that Putin is suffering from serious illnesses including cancer, Parkinson's disease and a schizoaffective disorder, but also gives regular updates on the war.

Its claims cannot be verified but it was among the first to report in advance the shape of Putin's recent mobilisation strategy.

It is reportedly authored by an exiled Kremlin lieutenant-general, known by the alias Viktor Mikhailovich.

The channel has claimed that the Kremlin is seeking to ban it but has so far failed.