A Russian news commentator took Salisbury Cathedral’s name in vain when reacting to Foreign Secretary James Cleverly’s support for Ukrainian military action against Russia.

During the broadcast of the Russian news review programme “60 минут” (60 Minutes) on May 31, host Olga Skabeyeva said Russia should make the “well-known Salisbury spire fall directly on [Mr Cleverly’s] head."

During a speech in Estonia one day earlier, Mr Cleverly had made comments about Ukraine’s counter-offensive against Russia.

He said Ukraine had the right to “project force beyond its borders to undermine Russia’s ability to project force into Ukraine itself, so legitimate military targets beyond its own border are part of Ukraine’s self-defence and we should recognise that.”

Within Russia and worldwide, the spire of Salisbury Cathedral became associated with the 2018 Novichok poisonings after an interview conducted on Russian state television network RT with suspects Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, in which the interviewer said the men seemed nervous.

During the interview, Boshirov specifically mentioned the spire and cited its exact height of 123m and Petrov said the two men had also travelled to Salisbury to see Old Sarum, Stonehenge and other landmarks.