A former Russian official warns that President Vladimir Putin could use nuclear weapons “just to show he is serious about them,” the Daily Mail reported.

“You provoke [Putin] with all the talk of not provoking him,” Boris Bondarev, who quit Russia’s U.N. mission in May, told MailOnline. “At some point there will be a time when Putin will use something like nuclear weapons just to show he is serious about them.”

Bondarev also said Putin could face a coup if Russia is defeated in Ukraine, which fell victim to an unprovoked attack on Feb. 24.

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