Britain has accused Russia of committing “war crimes” in Syria as world powers rounded on Moscow in one of the most bitter meetings of the UN Security Council in recent memory.

As Russian jets took part in what rebels called the “scorched earth bombing” of Aleppo, Western powers charged Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, with deliberately undermining peace talks and flouting its historic responsibilities to the United Nations.

The almost complete rupture of relations between Russia and the Western powers played out in angry scenes at the UN’s New York headquarters, where Britain, France and the US openly condemned Russia as “an international pariah”.