Vladimir Putin has taken his 'nuclear football' to a Russian space port in a show of strength alongside Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko.

The Russian leader was pictured next to a Kremlin henchman carrying the feared black briefcase which can launch a nuclear attack remotely as they stepped off a helicopter.

The strongman was seen with the same briefcase last week when he attended the funeral of a far-right politician in Moscow.

Adding to the fears, Putin warned the West today that Russia will never again depend on them and he had no doubts about his brutal invasion of Ukraine.

'Its goals are absolutely clear and noble,' Putin said. 'It's clear that we didn't have a choice. It was the right decision.'

At the space port, he cited the success of the Soviet space programme as evidence that Russia could achieve spectacular leaps forward in tough conditions. 

Sixty one years to the day since the Soviet Union's Yuri Gagarin blasted off into the history books by becoming the first man in space, Putin travelled to the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia's Far East, 3,450 miles east of Moscow.

'The sanctions were total, the isolation was complete but the Soviet Union was still first in space,' Putin said, according to Russian state television.