The Ukrainian ambassador to the United Nations Sergiy Kyslytsya reacted strongly to Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s decision to put deterrence forces, including nuclear weapons on “special alert” last week.

“If he wants to kill himself, he doesn’t need to use a nuclear arsenal,” Kyslytsya said. “He has to do what the guy in the bunker did in Berlin in May 1945,” referring to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, who famously committed suicide in a bunker near the end of World War II.

Putin told his military that the “special alert” escalation was in response to “aggressive statements” by the West following Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine last week. The “special alert” categorization means that the weapons are prepared to launch more quickly, but does not signal an intent to use them.

In the same speech, Kyslytsya condemned Putin further by reading the last text messages of a Russian soldier moments before his death.

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“Mama, I’m in Ukraine. There is a real war raging here. I’m afraid,” wrote the Russian soldier, said Kyslytsya in his speech. “We are bombing all of the cities together, even targeting civilians. We were told that they would welcome us, and they are falling under our armored vehicles, throwing themselves under the wheels and not allowing us to pass.”

“They call us fascists. Mama, this is so hard,” the soldier wrote.

Kyslytsya urged the U.N. General Assembly to realize the “magnitude” of what was happening.

Putin warned countries that stood in his way that they would see consequences “you have never seen in your history,” which was interpreted as a Russian threat to use nuclear weapons.

Russia’s continued invasion of Ukraine sparked a list of harsher sanctions from the West targeting Russia on Monday.

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