Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned western countries that there was a risk of nuclear war if they send their own troops to fight in Ukraine.
Putin, 71, said Moscow had the weapons to strike targets in the West during his annual address to the nation in Moscow on Thursday.
The address follows the two-year anniversary of the war with Ukraine and the shock death of Alexei Navalny.
Addressing parliament and other members of the country's elite, Putin repeated his accusation that the West is bent on weakening Russia and suggested western leaders did not understand how dangerous their meddling could be in what he cast as Russia's own internal affairs.
He prefaced his warning with a specific reference to French President Emmanuel Macron not ruling out European Nato members sending ground troops to Ukraine.
Macron’s suggestion on Monday was quickly rejected by the United States, Germany, Britain and others.
"(Western nations) must realise that we also have weapons that can hit targets on their territory. All this really threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons and the destruction of civilisation. Don't they get that?" said Putin.
Putin lauded what he said was Russia's vastly modernised nuclear arsenal, the largest in the world.
The war in Ukraine has triggered the worst crisis in Moscow's relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and Putin has previously warned of the dangers of a direct confrontation between Nato and Russia.
Visibly angry, Putin suggested western politicians recall the fate of those, like Nazi Germany's Adolf Hitler and France's Napoleon Bonaparte who unsuccessfully invaded his country in the past.
"But now the consequences will be far more tragic," said Putin. "They think it (war) is a cartoon," he said.
The speech comes two weeks before Russia’s 2024 presidential election when he is expected to be re-elected for another six-year term.
It took place the day before the funeral for Russian opposition leader Navalny, who died in a Siberian prison.
The 47-year-old died at an Arctic penal colony on February 16, while serving a 19-year sentence on charges widely seen as politically motivated.
His allies have accused Putin of having him murdered ahead of a potential prisoner swap.
Following Mr Navalny’s death the US announced over 500 sanctions against Russia.
The US Treasury Department said measures would hit “Russia, its enablers, and its war machine”.
Saturday also marked two years since the start of Russia’s war against Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
This week Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky said 31,000 soldiers have been killed since Russia's full-scale invasion.
He also said that “tens of thousands of civilians” had been killed in occupied areas of Ukraine, but said that no exact figures would be available until the war was over.
It was the first time that Kyiv has confirmed the number of its losses.
