COLCHESTER is among a list of potential targets Vladimir Putin would bomb if World War Three broke out, it has been claimed.

According to national news, intelligence sources have warned Russia has added two new targets to its strike list.

The Kremlin has reportedly identified targets across the country, including two towns in south England.

It has been said towns with historical connections to the Armed Forces, such as Aldershot, Colchester and Portsmouth, could already be on the list.

Other options range from Chatham, Tidworth and Salisbury.

According to the Daily Express, the up-to-date list is the most complete ever held by British intelligence services and was passed to a British intelligence officer in Eastern Europe by a Russian agent.

A Whitehall source told the newspaper: “The information includes details of a high-level attack in addition to a low-level strike.

"A Russian airstrike on UK soil would, of course, be a declaration of war, both on the UK and on the rest of NATO.”

The news comes as Russia’s Central Election Commission confirmed Russian President Vladimir Putin has won his fifth term with a record number of votes.

The commission said with nearly 100 per cent of all precincts counted, Putin got 87.29 per cent of the vote.

Gazette: Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures while speaking on a visit to his campaign headquarters after a presidential election in Moscow, RussiaRussian President Vladimir Putin gestures while speaking on a visit to his campaign headquarters after a presidential election in Moscow, Russia (Image: Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP)

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un along with the presidents of Honduras, Nicaragua and Venezuela quickly congratulated Putin on his victory, as did the leaders of the ex-Soviet Central Asian nations of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, while the West dismissed the vote as a sham.

The UK’s Foreign Secretary David Cameron wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter: “This is not what free and fair elections look like.”

Meanwhile, Defence Secretary Grant Shapps accused Putin of behaving like “a modern-day Stalin” after the election.

Mr Shapps previously said the world is “moving from a post-war to pre-war world” and the UK must ensure its “entire defence ecosystem is ready” to defend its homeland.

Earlier this year, the head of the Army General Sir Patrick Sanders said Britain should “train and equip” a “citizen army” to ready the country for a potential land war.

The military top brass said increasing Army numbers in preparation for a potential conflict would need to be a “whole-of-nation undertaking”.