Putin's spy chief warns West against direct military conflict with Russia

President Vladimir Putin's spy chief warned the West on Wednesday that it risked disastrous consequences if the United States and its European allies stoke a direct military confrontation with Russia over Ukraine.

Moscow has criticised a decision by Washington to let Ukraine use US missiles to strike into Russia, and on Tuesday Putin lowered the threshold for a nuclear strike in response to a broader range of conventional attacks.

The rising tensions prompted a flight to safety in some financial markets amid concern that there could be a global confrontation to echo the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when the Cold War superpowers came closest to intentional nuclear war.

Sergei Naryshkin, the head of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), said Russia would punish any Nato states that help Ukraine strike deep into Russia with long-range Western weapons.

"Attempts by individual Nato allies to participate in providing for possible long-range strikes with Western weapons deep into Russian territory will not go unpunished," Naryshkin told the magazine National Defence.

Russia said Ukraine fired US ATACMS missiles into Russia early on Tuesday morning and suggested that the United States must have helped the strikes with satellite data, targeting and military personnel.

Washington did not immediately address those assertions but said on Tuesday the update to Russia's nuclear doctrine was no surprise and rejected "more of the same irresponsible rhetoric from Russia".

It says Russia, which sent tens of thousands of troops in to Ukraine in February 2022, is to blame for the war in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday that the update showed the Russian leader's lack of interest in peace.

The US shut its embassy in Kyiv on Wednesday because of "specific information of a potential significant air attack" and told its citizens in Ukraine to be ready to swiftly seek shelter. The Kremlin said it had no comment.

Naryshkin, who heads the main successor organisation to the Soviet-era KGB's First Main Directorate, said Western elites were starting to become more aware of "the seriousness of Russia's intentions."

He said the West should understand "the need for greater restraint in their actions so as not to get involved in a direct military conflict with our country, which could lead to disastrous consequences for them."

Russia controls over 110,500 sqkm of Ukrainian territory. Ukraine controls about 650 sqkm of Russia's Kursk region.

"It's quite absurd - there is no reason to continue blaming Russia for everything," Peskov said, adding that earlier sabotage against the Nord Stream underwater gas pipelines had not been investigated with any zeal.