Russia said the remarks by German chancellor Friedrich Merz about long-range Ukrainian strikes into Russia with European weapons suggested that a decision allowing such attacks had been made long ago but kept secret.

On Monday night, Mr Merz said there were no longer any range restrictions on the weapons supplied to Ukraine by Britain, France, Germany and the United States, and that Ukraine could now do "long range fire".

But his remarks were unclear as he also said that Ukraine had been unable to do that until some time ago.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said the remarks indicated the calibre of people who had risen to power in leading European countries.

"He (Merz) said yesterday with such pretentiousness that from now on and forever there are no restrictions on the range of strikes," Mr Lavrov told reporters at a meeting in Moscow with Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan.

Mr Lavrov said other German officials appeared to have contradicted the chancellor and that such contradictory signals suggested to Moscow that European powers had long ago decided to allow Ukraine to make long-range strikes deep into Russia with European missiles but that the decision "was kept secret".

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that recent statements by European leaders on the issue had prompted confusion but that if long-range missile fires had been permitted, then it would amount to an "escalation".

Top Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev, responding to US president Donald Trump's criticism of Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin, said the only truly bad thing to worry about was the Third World War.

"Regarding Trump's words about Putin ‘playing with fire’ and ‘really bad things’ happening to Russia. I only know of one REALLY BAD thing – WWIII. I hope Trump understands this!" Mr Medvedev wrote in English on the social media platform X.

Donald Trump has been urged to impose major sanctions on Russia after the US president described Vladimir Putin as having “gone absolutely crazy” following a barrage of Russian drone and missile attacks across Ukraine.

French president Emmanuel Macron urged Mr Trump to turn his words into action, while Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelensky, claiming that the time for dialogue was over, called on the US leader to implement “increased sanctions” against Russia.

US president Donald Trump has said Vladimir Putin is "playing with fire."

Trump's latest comments follow some of the biggest drone and missile attacks on Ukraine since Russia's full-scale war began in early 2022.

"What Vladimir Putin doesn’t realize is that if it weren’t for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD. He’s playing with fire!," Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

Russian air defences destroyed or intercepted well over 100 Ukrainian drones far into the night over widely separated areas of Russia, including a swarm of drones repelled while headed for Moscow, officials said early today.

Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said defence ministry units had repelled 27 drones while they were travelling towards the Russian capital.

Russia's defence ministry had earlier said its units had downed 112 drones between 9pm and midnight Moscow time. Of these, 59 drones were intercepted over the Bryansk region on the Ukrainian border, with other incidents occurring in five different regions.

Russia only reports the drones it claims to have shot down, and does not reveal total numbers or when they hit their targets.

Russia launched an unprecedented drone attack of its own at the end of last week, including towards Kyiv.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said more than 900 drones were launched over a three-day period ending early on Monday morning.