Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has claimed that Russia is beginning to prepare its citizens for the possibility of the use of nuclear weapons in the war against his country.

On Friday, Zelensky said: “They begin to prepare their society. That’s very dangerous."

He then went on to claim however that Russian President, Vladimir Putin, is not yet prepared to use the nuclear weapons, but is feeling sceptical about whether or not they will actually do so.

The Ukrainian President continued to say: “They are not ready to do it, to use it. But they begin to communicate. They don’t know whether they’ll use or not use it. I think it’s dangerous to even speak about it."

Speaking in English at the president's office in Kyiv, President Zelensky in full said: "They begin to prepare their society. That's very dangerous.

"They are not ready to do it, to use it. But they begin to communicate. They don't know whether they'll use or not use it. I think it's dangerous to even speak about it."

Then, through a translator, he said in Ukrainian: "What we see is that Russia's people in power like life, and thus I think the risk of using nuclear weapons is not that definite as some experts say, because they understand that there is no turning back after using it, not only the history of their country, but themselves as personalities."

Meanwhile, the leader has also denied claims that he called for a preemptive nuclear strike against Russia last week

In an address to the Australian Lowy Institute, he made on Thursday, he called for "preventive strikes, preventive action" on the war and Putin, adding that “waiting for the nuclear strikes first” was an unwise move.

But Zelensky stated that the remark was mistranslated to imply that he would support such action.

He went on to clarify to the BBC that the 'preventive measure' he was speaking about was actually a reference to nonviolent moves - such as imposing additional sanctions against Russia.

Clarifying what he meant in his speech to the Lowy Institute, he said to the publication : “You must use preventive kicks, not attacks".

However, after the President's remarks, Russian figureheads condemned what they saw as Zelensky’s call for violence.

In fact, Kremlin spokesperson and Putin's crony, Dmitry Peskov, called the comment “an appeal to start another world war”.

But Zelensky hit back at this, and said that this characterisation and misunderstanding was only another example of Russian attempts to “retranslate” his words into “other directions".

He said: "They [the Russians] did their way, how it's useful for them, and began to retranslate it in other directions."

The leader then went on to urge Western allies of Ukraine, together with the members of the G7, to implement stricter sanctions on Putin and his cronies, adding that they might play a part in driving Russia back.