​Former national security adviser John Bolton suggested Tuesday that the US could assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin if he unleashed nuclear hell on Ukraine. 

​”We need to make clear [that] if Putin were to order the use of a tactical nuclear weapon he would be signing a suicide note,” Bolton​ told the British radio station LBC on Tuesday. “I think that’s what it may take to deter him if he gets into extreme circumstances.”

Bolton was asked by host Andrew Marr whether he meant assassination by the “suicide note” remark.

“We cannot allow the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine or anywhere else from terrorists like Iran, or North Korea, as well as from Russia or China, without the person who was responsible for that decision being held accountable,” Bolton responded, before adding that he believes the US has the ability to target the Russian leader.

“And I think he knows that. You can ask Qassem Soleimani in Iran what happens when we just decide somebody is a threat to the United States,” Bolton went on, referring to the US killing one of Tehran’s top generals in a January 2020 drone stroke.

​Bolton, who also served as US ambassador to the United Nations during the George W. Bush administration, said action targeting Putin “might not happen the next day” after the bombs drop.

However, he said that Washington must “make it clear to Putin that this is not a free decision on his part. We know who would be responsible for the use of nuclear weapons. We know it would be him and he will be held accountable.”

Putin, whose military has faced stiff opposition from Ukrainian forces, recently called up 300,000 reservists to help with the war effort andthreatened to use all weapons in Russia’s arsenal to avoid defeat. 

“I want to remind you that our country also has various means of destruction. When the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, to protect Russia and our people, we will certainly use all the means at our disposal,” Putin said in a televised address, adding “It’s not a bluff.”

Reacting to Putin’s warning, President Biden told Democratic donors the risk of nuclear “Armageddon” is now higher than it was during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. 

“He is not joking when he talks about the potential use of tactical and nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons because his military is, you might say, significantly underperforming,” Biden said during a New York City fundraiser last week.​

Bolton went on to describe Russia’s performance on the battlefield in Ukraine as “extraordinarily poor.”

“The fact is, Russia’s military has not been anything like what our Western intelligence services believed,” he said. “And yet I think collectively, NATO has not provided the level of assistance the Ukrainians really need, certainly not provided it at the right time.

“This is not the time to back away. It’s not the time to talk about negotiations with Putin. His own domestic political difficulties are rising,” Bolton concluded. “Ultimately, I don’t see how the West can deal with a Putin government when this war is over.”