RUSSIA’S terrifying nuclear-capable artillery has been spotted besieging a Ukrainian city, raising fears that Vladimir Putin may resort to tactical nukes.

Vladimir Putin’s defence ministry stoked fears of a nuclear conflict by releasing images of the massive 46.5-ton weapon firing shells at Kharkiv.

As Russia continues its grinding campaign in Ukraine, video shows the giant tracked self-propelled Malka gun bombarding the besieged city.

It comes as Russia’s deputy UN ambassador, Dmitry Polyanskiy, has warned that if Nato “provokes” Putin, he will use nuclear weapons.

“Why not, if NATO provokes Russia, if NATO attacks Russia? We are a nuclear power, after all “He stated.

Polyanskiy is one of Russia’s top diplomats in the United States.

The 2S7M howitzer has massive barrels capable of firing laser guided 100kg eight inch shells and can bombard targets from 35 miles away.

The guns are so powerful that they have been known to knock out crew members who are stunned by the concussive force.

The weapons systems are said to be paired with Orlan-10 drones, which aid in target identification and data transmission back to the crew.

It is claimed that the weapon has a five-metre range.

The fact that they can be armed with nuclear weapons is the most concerning aspect of them. the nuke shells 3BV2.

The shells have a destructive power of up to 1kt, which, while small for a nuke, is still a horrific amount of power.

The most powerful conventional bomb ever used, America’s infamous MOAB, weighed only 11 tonnes.

As a result, the nuke shells are roughly 100 times more powerful, with the force of 1,000 tonnes of TNT.

Russia is believed to have 2,000 nuclear weapons in the form of small yield missiles, torpedoes, and artillery shells.

Putin’s commanders expected to be able to annihilate the former Soviet state in a matter of days, but the conflict has now lasted one month.

Russian troops expected to be greeted with cheers and waving flags, but instead were met with rage and molotov cocktails.

However, the Russians’ tactics have shifted from surgical strikes to indiscriminate bombardment of cities as a result of this slow and brutal quagmire.

And anxieties are rising. Putin may resort to even more heinous weapons, including tactical nukes.

The deployment of the Malka guns, which could be armed with nuclear shells, adds to the worry.

“So when President Putin starts talking about nuclear options, he may have something like this in mind,” General Sir Richard Barrons told Sky News.

“We should understand that the stakes for Ukraine have now become global,” he added.

“Essentially, by raising the spectre of nuclear weapons, the rest of the Western hemisphere has joined Ukraine on the pitch.”

Experts across the board have warned that as Russia becomes increasingly stymied, it may resort to tactical nukes to break the impasse.

Both the United States and Russia are thought to have spent a significant amount of time and money developing smaller battlefield-ready atomic weapons.

The weapons lack the truly terrifying destructive power of the most powerful Cold War-era weapons, such as the Tsar Bomba.

A single 58 megaton Tsar Bomba could wreak havoc over a 50-mile radius, kill millions of people, send a shockwave that would circle the globe three times, and create a mushroom cloud visible for 500 miles.

Due to the potentially apocalyptic consequences of such a nuclear exchange, such a bomb was deemed far too large to ever be used.

However, it is this type of thinking that has pushed war planners to develop and potentially use tactical nuclear weapons rather than strategic nuclear weapons.

Russia has repeatedly refused to rule out the use of nukes and has frequently brought up the spectre of the weapons.

Moscow’s war doctrine is thought to be open to using nuclear weapons as an intimidation tactic in a conventional conflict – and use of such a weapon would require Putin’s personal approval.

The strategy came to be known as “escalate to de-escalate.”

Moscow has previously used such tactics in the field, such as simulating a Nato attack on the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.

In the scenario, Russian forces retaliated against the invading West by firing nuclear weapons at Poland and the United States.

These drills are thought to have taken place in the 1990s and 2000s, with tactical nukes being used for both offence and defence.

“I am legitimately concerned that in that circumstance Putin might use a nuclear weapon, most likely on the ground in Ukraine to terrify everyone and get his way,” said James Acton, a nuclear expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington DC.

Meanwhile, retired US Air Force commander General James R. Clapper Jr. warned that Moscow has lowered the bar for using nuclear weapons.

According to him, nuclear weapons are “utilitarian rather than unthinkable” in Russia.

The war against Russia continues today, with a major Nato meeting in which US President Joe Biden is expected to lay out the next steps.

Putin has become increasingly isolated on the global stage as crippling economic sanctions imposed on Russia begin to bite.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is becoming more bloody by the day, and there appears to be no end in sight.

The Ukrainians’ confidence is growing as they launch offensives to push the Russians back.

Moscow’s forces have failed to carry out the long-anticipated assault on Kyiv, and have only taken a few cities.

Thousands of civilians, including men, women, and children, have been killed, and millions have been forced to flee their homes.

And the longer the war goes on, the more innocent people will die, and Putin is more likely to do something shocking, such as use chemical or nuclear weapons.