The Kremlin today threatened to fire nuclear missiles on London, Washington, Berlin and Kyiv if Russia is forced to give up the Ukrainian territory it has invaded.

Dmitry Medvedev - a close Putin ally who served as president from 2008 to 2012 - said if a military defeat led to a return to the 1991 frontiers, when the Soviet Union collapsed, Moscow would unleash Armageddon.

'Attempts to return Russia to the borders of 1991 will lead to only one thing,' he said. 'Towards a global war with Western countries using the entire strategic arsenal of our state. In Kyiv, Berlin, London, Washington.'

Hypersonic nuclear missiles would also strike 'all other beautiful historical places that have long been included in the flight targets of our nuclear triad'.

He added: 'Will we have the courage to do this if the disappearance of a thousand-year-old country, our great Motherland, is at stake, and the sacrifices made by the people of Russia over the centuries will be in vain? The answer is obvious.'

He suggested Kyiv and the West should allow Putin to have the bits of Ukraine he thinks of as Russia.

'It's better to return everything [to us] before it's too late. Or we will return it ourselves with maximum losses for the enemy. Like in Avdiivka. Our warriors are heroes!'

Medvedev, deputy head of the Russian security council which controls the war, hit out at 'snotty Anglo-American fosterlings' who oppose Putin.

The British and German defence ministers Grant Shapps and Boris Pistorius were '***holes' who believe the world cannot afford a Russian victory in the war, he said on his Telegram channel.