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Russia's Federation Council warned on Tuesday that any transfer of nuclear weapons to Ukraine by the United Kingdom and France would be treated as a joint attack on Russia.
Senior Russian officials also threatened nuclear retaliation and accused London and Paris of planning to secretly supply Kyiv with atomic or "dirty bomb" technology.
"London and Paris cannot be unaware that in accordance with the Nuclear Doctrine of the Russian Federation, aggression by a non-nuclear state with the support of a nuclear power will be considered their joint attack," the Federation Council said in an official statement.
Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) alleged that the U.K. and France are working to covertly supply Ukraine with nuclear weapons components and technology, including a French compact warhead from submarine-launched ballistic missiles.
The SVR claimed both countries believe that if Kyiv possesses a nuclear bomb or a "dirty bomb" containing radioactive material, it could end the conflict on more favorable terms.
The Russian intelligence agency said "Western countries plan to present the weapon as if Ukraine developed it independently."
"Such plans show that London and Paris have lost their sense of reality," the SVR statement said.
The SVR also claimed that Germany refused to participate in such a plan.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the intelligence was "extremely dangerous" and would be taken into account in ongoing negotiations over the Ukraine conflict.
"This information will certainly be taken into account by us in the course of ongoing negotiations. Because this is potentially extremely dangerous information," Peskov told reporters, calling the alleged plans by London and Paris a "flagrant violation of all norms and principles of international law."
Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev also stated the alleged plans "radically change the situation" and constitute "a direct transfer of nuclear weapons to a warring country."
"There can be no shadow of doubt that Russia, in such a scenario, will be forced to use any weapons, including non-strategic nuclear weapons, against targets in Ukraine that pose a threat to our country," Medvedev said on his social media channel.
"And if necessary, against the supplier countries that become accomplices in a nuclear conflict with Russia," he added, noting that, "This is the symmetrical response that the Russian Federation has the right to carry out."
Meeting with Vietnamese Foreign Minister Le Hoai Trung in Moscow, Medvedev said the alleged plans represent "a direct path to world war."
"The consequences of such steps are known, yet such games are being played nonetheless," Medvedev noted.
Separately, Russia voiced alarm at Washington's assertion that it will resume nuclear testing to match alleged secret explosions by China and Russia.
Speaking before the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, Russian Ambassador Gennady Gatilov warned that "the US withdrawal from its national moratorium would trigger a domino effect" and that "the responsibility for the consequences would rest entirely with Washington."
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control Christopher Yeaw indicated last week that President Donald Trump was serious about resuming nuclear testing, saying the U.S. would return to testing on an "equal basis."
Yeaw provided details on what Washington says was a low-yield Chinese nuclear test conducted underground on June 22, 2020, with an estimated yield equivalent to a 10-tonne nuclear explosion.
He accused China of preparing additional tests "with designated yields in the hundreds of tonnes."
"If the world's worried about what kind of testing the United States will conduct, they should be more worried about the basis that's already been set by Russia and China," a senior U.S. State Department official said.
To date, France and Britain are the only nuclear-weapon states to have ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).
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