A Russian official said the Kremlin would use nuclear weapons against the UK if it continues to provide Kyiv with nuclear weapons technology.

The message came from Russia‘s former president Dmitry Medvedev, now the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, who said Russia would be able to deploy tactical nuclear weapons against the UK. The threat came after Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) issued a statement accusing both Britain and France of “actively working” to arm Ukraine with a nuclear bomb.

According to Medvedev, such a move would violate the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

“There can be no shadow of a doubt that Russia, under such circumstances, would have to use any means necessary, including non-strategic nuclear weapons, against targets in Ukraine that pose a threat to our country,” he wrote on Telegram, adding “if necessary, against the supplier countries as well, which would become accomplices in a nuclear conflict with Russia”.

Back in December, a Russian official highlighted dozens of British defence-linked sites implying they could be directly targeted by missiles in a chilling new map sparking WW3 fears. Dmitry Rogozin, who previously served as deputy premier and space agency chief, warned the UK could become “deadly dangerous”.

Rogozin also posted a map highlighting 23 UK defence-related sites as potential targets for Russia. This warning came after former British defence secretary Ben Wallace called for “making Crimea uninhabitable and unviable from a Russian point of view”.

The 23 defence sites were displayed on a map taken from the UK government’s policy paper Defence Industrial Strategy 2025: Making Defence an Engine for Growth.

Last year, a Russian television propagandist Vladimir Solovyov said “Dmitry Rogozin today posted a reminder of targets in Britain that could be destroyed first. The idiots will get what’s coming to them, they’ll just get what’s coming to them”.

Solovyov also said Russia could unleash the Poseidon underwater nuclear drone on Britain – “and your country doesn’t even exist.” He said: “But when the unfortunate Brits die, they should say your name, because it’s you, you moron, who brought trouble to the island.”

The Mirror explained the threat came a day after Russian state TV threatened a terrorist operation to blow up a Second World War shipwreck packed with 1,400 tonnes of explosives in the Thames estuary. A clandestine strike by Russian special forces would be “revenge” for alleged British involvement in Ukraine’s successful operation to disable and destroy dozens of Kremlin oil refineries, it was claimed.