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Angela Knight, former chief executive of trade association Energy UK, acknowledged that Russia’s Vladimir Putin is weaponising energy supplies to great effect.

She said: “He is playing the economic war and the psychological war extremely well.”

“We have been panicking as a country – Europe has been panicking as well – and it’s not surprising.”

Her comments followed an announcement by Russia’s state energy firm Gazprom that its Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany will remain closed indefinitely.

And Ms Knight questioned why Britain’s dependence on external supplies from countries which are “not that friendly” has grown over the past 25 years.

She said: “We can get through this winter. It’s going to be difficult and pricey, and there will have to be assistance given to various people and some assistance to industry.”

“At the same time, there is a huge ability to reset a lot of our strategies and our policies, and do that quickly so we get some more back of that sufficiency, and that will be helpful not only in the short-term but in the medium and long-term as well.”

Gazprom was meant to resume gas deliveries yesterday but claimed Western sanctions are hampering efforts to fix a faulty turbine.

However, Siemens claimed it was not contacted to carry out repairs. 

Last night Russia expert Keir Giles, of the Chatham House think-tank, said: “Germany was warned for a decade what it would mean to allow construction of the Nord Stream 1.

“They ignored these warnings. What we are seeing now is the purpose for which the pipeline was constructed: for Russia to have direct leverage over Europe in order to get away with political machinations planned elsewhere.”

On Friday, leaders of the G7 nations agreed to form a “buyers’ cartel”, aimed at capping the cost of Russian oil, while European gas storage is now up to a safer 80 percent of capacity.

Although the UK has relied on Russia for only six percent of its gas supplies and 11 percent of oil supplies, June was the first month on record when neither was imported.

Yet prices remain high because the energy price cap is linked to international wholesale gas prices. 

Urging Britons to stay supportive, Olena Zelenska, the wife of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, said: “When you start counting pennies in your bank account or pocket, we do the same and count our casualties.”

Ukraine’s counter-offensive to recapture the South was succeeding yesterday, Kyiv sources said, thanks to attacks on military infrastructure in Kherson.

But in Kramatorsk, in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, a wholesale market was obliterated as devastating shelling by Russian forces continued.

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