Putin warns Russians 'To be prepared for anything' after refusing to rule out strikes against NATO targets

President Vladimir Putin has warned the Russian people to “be prepared for anything” after making an extraordinary admission over his nation’s vulnerability to attack.

Revealing for the first time how the ‘mistaken’ Kremlin had miscalculated by assuming Ukraine was not capable of striking the nation’s oil refineries operating deep inside Russian territory, he threatened renewed military strikes to ensure “they don’t harm us again”, reports The Sun.

Speaking at the Eastern Economic Forum held in the far eastern city of Vladivostok, the Russian leader made the chilling statement after being questioned over the fuel queues drivers currently endure across the country due to Ukrainian drone strikes, which have caused spectacular and disruptive damage to key infrastructure in recent months.

“Only our readiness for anything will give everyone who wants to harm us an understanding that it is better not to do so”, he is reported to have said.

He continued: “(We) assumed that they were purely civilian facilities, and they could not be targets of any attacks even in conditions of armed conflict.”

Putin’s most recent warning comes after he refused to rule out a strike against NATO founding member, the United Kingdom when asked by the state broadcaster Russian Today, whether British industrial or military sites could be the subject of direct attack.

He replied to the reporter, “That’s a secret, a military secret.”

Ukraine has also been the subject of drone attack by Russian forces (Getty)

Doubling down on the veiled threat, Putin confirmed UK forces located in the territory of Ukraine could be “absolutely” legitimately attacked.

Backing up the threats of President Putin, his Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said last week that strikes could be authorised against "any British military installations and equipment in Ukraine and beyond its borders", reports GB News.

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has given Ukraine plans for Storm Shadow long-range missiles, according to the BBC, while NATO leaders raised concerns over increasingly frequent ‘hybrid warfare’ including sabotage and cyberattacks being waged against Western nations.

The Russian leader has issued veiled threats against the West in recent weeks (Getty)

Meanwhile, the German news outlet Bild reported on alarming satellite images published by Copernicus showing a huge and secretive drone factory located in the Alabuga Economic Zone understood to be producing variants on the notorious Iranian-manufactured Shahad drones that have wreaked destruction across Ukraine and the Middle East. The US think tank CSIS estimates the 1,000 hectare facility can produce an astonishing 5,500 units of the Geran variant drones per month.

Putin has already spoken against peace talks, citing Western seizures of his shadow fleet tankers used to illegally transport oil, reports The Sun.

“And now, all the more so, we have heard threats of attacks on civilian aircraft. This is, of course, a manifestation of state terrorism,” he said.

“And this undoubtedly complicates, seriously complicates, the possibility of holding bilateral peace talks [to end the war in Ukraine].”