Vladimir Putin's puppet Dmitry Medvedev has warned Russia could seize British assets in retaliation for the UK using frozen Russian assets to fund military support for Ukraine. Britain announced more than £1billion in military aid to Ukraine paid for using frozen Russian assets.

A former Russian president, Medvedev posted a strongly-worded warning from his Telegram account. He said: "British thieves transferred Russian money to neo-Nazis. Consequences? Britain committed an offence". He went on to warn of retaliation, suggesting British property could be seized. Putin's puppet also called Foreign Secretary David Lammy "the English idiot".

Medvedev said Russia will respond to any illegal seizure of frozen Russian funds or profits by itself seizing the "valuables of the British Crown".

He added: "Given the money cannot be recovered in court for obvious reasons, our country has only one way to return the valuables: return it in kind".

The deputy chairman of the country's security council said Russia could also seize more territory from Ukraine.

His threats came on the same day French President Emmanuel Macron said that 26 of Ukraine’s allies have pledged to deploy troops as a "reassurance force" for the war-torn country once fighting ends in the conflict with Russia.

Mr Macron spoke after a meeting in Paris of the so-called "coalition of the willing", a group of 35 countries which support Ukraine.

He said 26 of the countries had committed to deploying troops in Ukraine or to maintaining a presence on land, at sea or in the air to help guarantee the country’s security the day after a ceasefire or peace is achieved.

Earlier on Thursday, Mr Macron and other European leaders met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the US envoy for peace talks, Steve Witkoff, to discuss ways of ensuring long-term military support and continued US backing for Ukraine once the conflict ends. Mr Zelensky also met Mr Witkoff behind closed doors.

Though details of any US participation in the security guarantees are unclear, both Mr Macron and Mr Zelensky said Washington had expressed a willingness to be part of the plan.

The Ukrainian president said he was grateful for that, adding: "As for in what format, I am not yet ready to tell you in detail."

Mr Macron said: "The planning work will be finalised with the United States."

Finnish President Alexander Stubb told Finnish media that in a phone call with European leaders, US President Donald Trump raised the need to put economic pressure on Russia.

Mr Stubb said Mr Trump had also said Europe must stop buying Russian oil and gas, which the US leader said was funding the war. The US leader reportedly stressed that Russia received £954million (€1.1billion) in fuel sales from the EU in one year, according to a White House official.

He also emphasised that European leaders should place economic pressure on China for indirectly funding Russia’s war efforts, according to the official, who was not authorised to comment publicly about the private talks and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, Putin said on Wednesday that he believed if common sense prevails, it was possible to agree an acceptable option for ending the conflict. He invited Mr Zelensky to talks in Moscow as long as they were well prepared beforehand.

Mr Zelensky said today that said a meeting with Putin was needed, adding: "This is not a matter of a desire, this is a matter of necessity. We support any format, bilateral meeting, trilateral meeting, I believe that Russia does everything to defer it."