The Kremlin has said it will use its “entire strategic arsenal” and fire nuclear missiles at London, Washington, Berlin and Kyiv if it is made to give up the areas of Ukraine it has invaded.

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, who is a close ally of Vladimir Putin, has warned of “total war” if Russia was forced to return to its 1991 borders established at the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Instead, Medvedev suggested Kyiv and the West should allow Putin to have the areas of Ukraine he believes are part of Russia, the Mirror reports.

He said: “Attempts to return Russia to the borders of 1991 will lead to only one thing. 

“Towards a global war with Western countries using the entire strategic arsenal of our state.

‌“In Kyiv, Berlin, London, Washington.”

‌He added that nuclear missiles would also strike “all other beautiful historical places that have long been included in the flight targets of our nuclear triad”.

He continued: “‌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.”

‌Medvedev, the deputy head of the Russian Security Council which controls the war, warned that it is better to return everything to Russia “before it’s too late”.

If not he said that Russia will “return it ourselves with maximum losses for the enemy”

He also hit out at "snotty Anglo-American fosterlings” who oppose Putin. ‌

In July last year Medvedev warned of “global nuclear fire” if Kyiv forces and Nato seized any Russian land. By Jacob Phillips, Evening Standard