The Kremlin has warned the US and Britain they will be seen as 'full-fledged' participants in the war in Ukraine if Storm Shadow and HIMARS missiles are used to hit targets in Russia or Russian-occupied Crimea.

Vladimir Putin's defence minister Sergei Shoigu warned he will target 'decision-making centres' in Ukraine - implying he plans to order his military to target Volodymyr Zelensky and his government leaders in Kyiv.

Shoigu said: 'According to our information, the leadership of the Ukrainian Armed Forces is planning to launch strikes on the territory of the Russian Federation, including Crimea, with HIMARS and Storm Shadow missiles.

'The use of these missiles outside the area of the special military operation would mean a full-fledged involvement of the US and UK in the conflict entailing immediate strikes on the decision-making centres in Ukraine.'

His claim that Crimea is part of Russia is disputed by the West - and international law - which regards it as Ukrainian.

Putin forcibly annexed the Black Sea peninsula in 2014.

So far Ukraine has used long-range British-supplied Storm Shadow and US-provided HIMARS to hit targets in Russian-occupied areas of mainland Ukraine, not including Crimea.

Shoigu's threat came as Russia admitted today that it had lost another colonel in an earlier Storm Shadow strike close to Crimea, on the Arabat Spit.

Col Sergei Postovalov, 53, is due to be buried tomorrow after he was fatally wounded in the 10 June strike which hit a Russian command post close to Henichesk minutes after Putin's deputy premier Denis Manturov had visited.