WATCH: Portsmouth named on hit list of Russia's Cold War nuclear targets in UK

Cold War predictions drawn up in secret by the British government reveal the extent of a Russian nuclear strike on the UK.

At the height of nuclear tensions in the 1970s and 80s, at least 38 towns and cities were feared to be at risk from a strike from the Soviet Union – and Portsmouth was one of the key targets.

Dozens of army, navy and air force bases were also earmarked for destruction, with Portsmouth Naval Base topping the list of strategic targets.

The city is home to a majority of the Royal Navy’s fleet, as well as the Senior Service’s HQ where much of its top brass are located. Bases in nearby Gosport and Fareham also house thousands sailors.

WATCH: What would happen if a nuclear bomb was dropped on Portsmouth

Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously made no secret of the fact he is willing to use nukes and relations between the UK and Russia have reached new lows over the poisoning of Sergei Skripal as fears of a new Cold War grow.

UK defence officials drew up a list of 106 locations they believed were a target for Russia – marking them as ‘probable nuclear targets.’

Other UK towns and cities listed included Central London, Cheltenham, Edinburgh, Nottingham, Teeside, Coventry, Wolverhampton, Leicester, Stoke-on-Trent, Belfast, Huddersfield, Sunderland, Gillingham, Rochester, Chatham, Maidstone, Glasgow, Birmingham, Liverpool, Cardiff, Manchester, Southampton, Leeds, Newcastle/Gateshead, Bristol, Sheffield, Swansea, Hull, Catterick, York, Preston, Cambridge, Dover, Reading, Salcombe, Brecon, Kidderminster and Armagh.

Alongside these major population centres were 23 RAF bases, 14 USAF bases, 10 radar stations, eight military command centres, and 13 Royal Navy bases.

It is not known if the list of probable targets has changed since the Cold War.

The news comes amid on-going tensions between Russia and the west.