Vladimir Putin has said Russia will target the US with new nuclear weapons if it deploys missiles to Europe following the demise of a major arms control treaty.

In an annual speech to the federal assembly, the Russian leader on Wednesday accused Washington of planning to deploy intermediate-range missiles to the continent following its withdrawal from a bilateral agreement banning those weapons.

This would put the missiles within a 10-minute flight from Moscow, creating a serious threat to Russia and compelling it to consider “symmetrical and asymmetrical actions” in response, he said.

“Russia will be forced to create and deploy types of weapons that can be used not only against those territories posing a direct threat to us, but also against those territories where the decision-making centres are,” Mr Putin said, referring to the United States.

Russia and the United States have had hundreds of nuclear missiles pointed at each other since the Cold War, but Mr Putin's speech also detailed a bevy of new weapons Russia is developing, including hypersonic weapons and a nuclear-powered underwater drone.

His comments marked an escalation in rhetoric from earlier this month, when he announced only a “symmetrical” response to Donald Trump's suspension of US participation in the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty signed by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987.