Kiselyov, the head of the Putin mouthpiece media group Rossiya Segodnya, said if the Britain government loosens restrictions on Storm Shadow missiles, the UK ‘could face a nuclear response’. ‘London would do well to remember that the British Isles have no missile defence system at all,’ he warned on his news programme, Vesti Nedeli.

If Britain does lift its restrictions on Kyiv for strikes with British Storm Shadow missiles deep into Russian territory, then from now on [they] could face a nuclear response.'

The Russian president spoke in a video message as the Ukrainian air force said it had shot down drones and one missile launched by Russia