First they came for Ukraine ... and I responded with the proper application of overwhelming force

The unloved gremlin Putin looks a little mad in his steroid-steeped dotage but mutual destruction is not part of his plan. Let's call his bluff

One for Moscow. One for St Petersburg. One for Novosibirsk and one for Yekaterinburg. One each for the rest of Russia's 20 biggest cities -- including Rostov and Voronezh, although the foreign secretary will have to find out where they are first. One special one for Putin's palace on the Black Sea. I was going to say one for the people Putin loves, but there isn't anyone except himself. And he loves himself very, very much.

That's why I do not believe urging a massive deployment against Russian forces with nuclear backup contradicts what I wrote yesterday about extending friendship to the Russian people. It is inconceivable Putin will trigger a nuclear showdown that would result in his being vaporised. His threats about "gravest consequences" were easy to make -- just words. More to the point, the consequences of inaction would be truly grave.

Between them, the UK, France and the US have the nuclear firepower to subdue the Kremlin. Putin would not risk the destruction of Russia -- he wants Ukraine, but he doesn't want it that much. We would not need to worry about China, which would not intercede on Moscow's behalf and indeed would learn a useful lesson from a western alliance resolved to defend Ukraine.

With our nuclear backup ready, Nato should launch a massive strike on the Russian forces in Ukraine. The only Russians harmed would be troops cynical or foolish enough to be part of an illegal invasion on a sovereign nation. Regime change in Russia would follow, which we can now see is vital for the future of Europe: Putin's threats to Sweden and Finland make clear that there will be no end to his aggression unless we end it.

We lost the initiative in this conflict years ago, when we let Putin and his oligarch catamites despoil and corrupt at will. For the sake of Ukraine and for the sake of every democratic nation, we have to fight back now.

I am a humble journalist with a background in the ancient world; others know far more than I do about geopolitical and military affairs. But I am baffled that a fully fledged kinetic response is not even being discussed. This Is exactly how Putin operates: he swaggers about making threats and pushing boundaries, and, like a child, when he meets no resistance he pushes a bit more. He has been building his military to a disproportionate size and capability, just as Hitler did 80 years earlier. To use a different analogy from history, Xerxes didn't have weapons of mass distractions, at least not as we would recognise them today, but when he overreached and tried to conquer all of Greece, bold thinking, great leadership by Athens and grim bloody determination ultimately sent him scurrying back home, even though Athenians had to endure catastrophic losses. They recognised that doing nothing was actually surrender. So should we.

But perhaps the deafening silence of our military leaders is a masquerade, and in war offices across the Nato alliance generals are furiously planning. Perhaps tonight, or tomorrow night, or the one after that, Putin is going to get the unpleasant surprise he so richly deserves. He has already been put on the back foot by the spirited resistance of the Ukrainians, and we have seen his spoilt-brat reaction. His threats are proliferating, and it should only harden our resolve -- now is the time to smash him back to Moscow.