New Delhi: The winter in Slavic countries including Russia and Ukraine is known for its bone-chilling harshness.
It could get deadlier it if Russia's looming nuke-threat were to translate into a reality.
Obviously Russia is a playing a game of chicken and has no idea how to disentangle itself from the war.
Now that Ukraine is hitting back capturing its cities held by Russian forces, President Putin is fighting a losing war.
In the thick of despair last week, he deployed forces after a brief lull to attack Ukraine's civilian areas, causing widespread casualties.
Alongside, Russian authorities accused Ukraine of plotting to use radioactive-laced bomb or "a dirty bomb" in the Russia-occupied town of Kherson.
Ukrainian Foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba called the allegation "absurd and dangerous", adding that Russia was accusing others what it was planning to do.
Russia hinted that it might be forced to use a tactical nuclear weapons against Ukraine, a ploy in the name of preemptive move to stop Ukraine's "dirty bomb".
It is not yet known through independent verification if Ukraine has a dirty bomb in its possession at all, let alone using it.
The US sees the "dirty bomb" accusation by Russia a 'false flag' or a ploy to justify its use of nuclear weapons on Ukraine
The US President Joe Biden on Wednesday said Russia's nuclear threat using a false flag would be "serious mistake".
Meanwhile, Russia reportedly informed the US of its plans to carry out annual drills of nuclear stash.
The US suspects that Russia will conduct nuclear weapon test during the annual exercise.
Alongside, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of planting explosives inside the Nova Kakhovka hydroelectric dam to blow up it thus flooding most of southern Ukraine.
In every sense, the winter for Ukrainians will be a time for worrying over the impending Russian nuclear attack or the flood from the broken dam.