Vladimir Putin will chair an emergency security council meeting after the 12-mile bridge linking mainland Russia and Crimea was partially destroyed.

On the day after his 70th birthday, the Russian leader woke up to reports of a truck explosion on the Kerch Bridge, which has previously been described as his ‘pet project’.

The president himself presided over its grand opening in 2018, four years after he illegally annexed the peninsula from Ukraine.

Lord Dannatt, the former head of the British Army, warned that Putin could ‘go nuclear’ after the destruction of the symbolic infrastructure project, the Telegraph reported.

‘Tomorrow, the president has a planned meeting with the permanent members of the Security Council,’ Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said earlier today.

But he did not specify whether the bridge would be discussed during the meeting.

Mr Peskov added: ‘We will let you know following the results [of the meeting].’

Putin regularly holds operational meetings with the security council, and as a rule they are held on a weekly basis.

Members include longtime allies and senior politicians Dmitry Medvedev, Sergei Lavrov and Sergei Shoigu.

Fears have been growing that the president’s personal embarrassment over the invasion will push him to use tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

So far, Russia’s nuclear threats have remained just that – threats, but Western leaders have been taking his words seriously.

The Kremlin previously warned any attack on the Kerch Bridge would be a red line and trigger ‘judgement day’.

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‘This was a declaration of war without rules,’ said Russian senator Alexander Bashkin.

He stressed that Russia’s response will be ‘adequate, conscious and, possibly, asymmetric’.

Ukraine is yet to claim responsibility for the explosion, which killed three people, but a number of officials have revelled in Putin’s humiliation.

In a video address, Volodymyr Zelensky indirectly acknowledged the bridge attack but did not address its cause.

‘Today was not a bad day and mostly sunny on our state’s territory,’ the Ukrainian president said.

‘Unfortunately, it was cloudy in Crimea. Although it was also warm.’

He said Ukraine wants a future ‘without occupiers, throughout our territory, in particular in Crimea’.

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