Russia has warned Britain against deploying a ‘coalition of the willing’ in Ukraine, declaring it could lead to a nuclear World War Three.

Putin hawk Sergei Shoigu, secretary of the powerful Russian security council and ex-defence minister, said Russia rejected Western boots on the ground in the war-torn country.

He also warned of Moscow‘s readiness to both use nuclear weapons and restart atomic weapon tests in the Arctic for the first time since the Cold War, claiming Europe is secretly preparing for war against Russia by 2030.

‘Sensible politicians in Europe understand that the implementation of such a scenario [putting Western troops on the ground in Ukraine] could lead to a direct clash between NATO and Russia and subsequently to World War Three,’ he told state news agency TASS.

It was ‘more correct’ to call such British and EU forces ‘a contingent interventionists or occupiers’, said Shoigu, referring to Sir Keir Starmer‘s ‘coalition of the willing’.

‘Where will these ‘peacekeepers’ come from?

‘They will be units of the same NATO countries, against the presence of which Russia opposed even before the [war], which began largely because of this threat – the deployment of NATO military infrastructure in Ukraine, on our historical territory.’

Shoigu raged against the UK, saying that ‘the same British even before the [war] began were very actively building their naval base in Ochakiv in the Mykolaiv region [of Ukraine], where they not only trained naval special forces of the Ukrainian Navy, but also conducted their operations against us’.

He said: ‘It turns out that they will be able to return there again, but already under the flag of peacekeeping forces?’

Shoigu – who was defence minister before being replaced 11 months ago – warned: ‘This is exactly what French President Emmanuel Macron means when he says that Ukraine has the right to ask for the introduction of NATO contingents without consulting Russia.’

The hardliner ranted: ‘What will these ‘peacekeepers’ protect in Ukraine?

‘The Nazi regime, marches and torchlight processions with symbols of SS divisions?

‘Support the persecution of Orthodox Christians?

‘Depriving the Russian-speaking population of the right to speak their native language, to preserve their own culture and traditions?

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