Speaking at a public lecture in Moscow, Sergei Lavrov said both countries “have been participating in Nato military exercises for many years,” in remarks quoted by the Ria Novosti news agency.

But he reiterated Moscow’s stance that his country’s response to Sweden and Finland’s decision to apply for membership of the military alliance will depend on what forces Nato deploys on their territory.

Meanwhile Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said countries like the UK and US whose military advisers, he says, “tell armed Ukrainian nationalists what to do, [and] who give them intelligence information,” should be considered more than just “unfriendly”.

“We put it mildly by calling them unfriendly states. I would now say that these are already hostile states because what they are doing is war,” Peskov added.