Russia will sink Britain under a nuclear tidal wave and reduce the US to 'radioactive ash' if NATO sends troops into Ukraine, top Putin propagandist warns

Russia will sink Britain under a nuclear tidal wave and reduce the US to radioactive ash if NATO sends troops into Ukraine, Vladimir Putin's most senior propagandist has vowed.

Any bid by the West to put boots on the ground in Ukraine to 'inflict a strategic defeat on Russia' would result in Armageddon, warned Dmitry Kiselyov.

Putin would unleash his Satan-2 and other deadly nuclear missiles, he said.

French President Emmanuel Macron has said the West should not rule out sending troops into Ukraine but other NATO leaders have been more circumspect.

Kiselyov - a TV presenter who is also overall chief of Russia's largest propaganda empire - was personally congratulated by Putin on his recent 70th birthday.

The hardliner warned the West not to drive 71-year-old Putin into a corner.

'If NATO countries send their troops into Ukraine in order to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, then the very moment about which Putin once said, 'Why do we need the world, if there is no Russia in it?' would come.

'Then everything [all types of missile] would be launched by us, in every direction - Sarmats [Satan-2s], Yars, and Avangards.

'American decision-making centres, and launchers on land and at sea are already in their sights.

'France as a nuclear power will have to be disarmed instantly. The British Isles will simply go under water.

'There are technologies for this….but it's better not to let things get to that point.'

He claimed: 'This is not propaganda. In our programme ten years ago, in 2014, we said - possibly, for the first time - that guaranteed retribution was inevitable.

'Do not drive Russia into a corner. Russia is the only country in the world that is truly capable of turning the United States into radioactive ash.'

Hypersonic Sarmat - or Satan-2 - is the world's biggest ballistic missile, a 208-ton 15,880mph doomsday intercontinental nuclear weapon, the size of a 14-storey tower block.

It is hailed by Putin as 'unstoppable', attacking the West after flying into space over the south or north pole.

Nuclear-capable hypersonic missile complex Avangard delivers missiles to targets at 27 times the speed of sound.

Yars missiles are currently the main element of the ground-based component of the Russian strategic nuclear force.

The Mach 25 missiles have a range of up to 7,500 miles, enabling a strike on the US.

However Sarmet, Avangard and another Kiselyov favourite Poseidon are not yet deployed despite being hyped by Putin.

Kiselyov has previously threatened that Britain could be drowned by Russia's underwater Poseidon weapon.

It 'approaches the target at a one kilometre depth with the speed of 200 kilometres per hour [125mph].There is no way to stop this underwater drone. It has a warhead with a capacity of up to 100 megatons.

'The explosion of this thermonuclear torpedo close to Britain's shores will raise a giant wave, a tsunami.'

He said: 'This tidal wave is also a carrier of extremely high doses of radiation. Surging over Britain, it will turn what is probably left of them into radioactive desert. Permanently unusable for anything.'

As well as being a prominent TV propagandist, Putin appointed Kiselyov head of Rossiya Segodnya, a Russian state-controlled media monster.

He also serves as deputy director of the All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company