Russia ‘not at war with NATO’, Lavrov says; cracks emerge in Russian elite; US casts doubt on nuclear threats I Ukraine live

President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is “brutality of the coldest sort”, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said tonight.

Speaking to reporters, Mr Kirby condemned the Kremlin leader’s actions in Ukraine and said it was “hard to look at” what Mr Putin was doing to the country.

He said: “It’s brutality of the coldest and the most depraved sort.

“I don’t think we fully appreciated the degree to which he
would visit that kind of violence and cruelty and as I said
depravity, on innocent people, on non-combatants, on civilians,
with such utter disregard for the lives he was taking.”

The Pentagon official began to get emotional as he spoke of the scenes emerging from Ukraine.

 “It’s hard to look at what he’s doing in Ukraine, what his forces are doing in Ukraine and think that any ethical, moral individual could justify that,” he said.

“It’s difficult to look at some of the images and imagine that any well-thinking, serious mature leader would do that. I can’t talk to his psychology, but I think we can all speak to his depravity.”

Mr Kirby also said it was “not entirely clear how truthful the information was” that the Russian leader was getting but there were “indications that he wasn’t necessarily getting an accurate picture”.