A leading Kremlin mouthpiece has warned that the West’s overt backing for Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory could lead not to Russia’s defeat but to the “total annihilation” of Ukraine.

The warning from Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of the propaganda outlets RT and Sputnik, came after further Ukrainian strikes overnight on the border city of Belgorod, a key supply center for Russian military forces in eastern Ukraine.