With Russia in the grip of runaway inflation and a divisive push for Covid vaccine passports, state television’s most-watched news talk shows have turned to a favourite subject in trying times: Ukraine, the “brotherly nation”-turned-familiar bugbear for the Kremlin.

The heightened tensions with the west over a troop build-up near the border have highlighted Russia’s fixation with Ukraine during a seven-year proxy war that has killed more than 14,000 in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas.

Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, has denied any Russian involvement in Kyiv’s conflict with Moscow-led separatists, but made Ukraine the centrepiece of a 30-minute address to foreign policy officials this week, telling them the war footing was a reminder to the west not to cross Russia’s “red lines”.