Vladimir Putin has slammed western leaders as "vampires" as he warns that he is prepared for a nuclear war.

Ahead of the Kremlin-controlled presidential elections, Putin said "weapons exist in order to use them".

The Russian leader also accused Western elites of becoming "accustomed to fill their bellies with human flesh".

When asked by state television presenter, Dmitry Kiselyov whether a nuclear conflict with the West was “inevitable”, Putin explained he did not yet have a reason to launch nuclear weapons on Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin has slammed western leaders as 'vampires' as he warns that he is prepared for a nuclear war

"I don’t think that everything is rushing directly towards this, but we are ready," he said.

Russia has the biggest store of nuclear warheads in the world, according to the Federation of American Scientists.

Putin added that if US troops were deployed to Ukraine or occupied territory that Russia claims as its own, it would be considered as "unacceptable intervention" in the conflict.

"I have said many times that [Ukraine] is a matter of life and death for us," he said.

Kiselyov, who has been sanctioned by western countries, asked Putin how it felt to be a figure of "hope" for people who strive for "international justice, the protection of human dignity, [and] the protection of traditional values".

He replied: "I am simply fulfilling my duty to Russia and to our people who consider Russia their motherland.

"Western elites have been accustomed for centuries to fill their bellies with human flesh and their pockets with money. But they must understand that their vampire ball is ending."

Russia says there can be no peace in Ukraine until Kyiv surrenders four regions in the east and the south of the country that Moscow claims as its own.

Russia says there can be no peace in Ukraine until Kyiv surrenders four regions in the east and the south of the country

Earlier this week, Ukraine launched a huge series of drone attacks on targets in Russia.

A vital oil refinery in the Nizhny Novgorod region was also hit.

Other drone attacks were reported across western and southern Russia.