French President Emmanuel Macron Thursday hit back at Vladimir Putin for likening him to the emperor Napoleon Bonaparte — branding the Russian president an “imperialist” who sought to rewrite history.

The tit-for-tat exchange came as tensions spiked over Macron’s suggestion to extend France’s nuclear deterrent to other European countries — with Moscow calling it a “threat”.

In an apparent jab at the French leader, Putin said earlier Thursday: “There are still people who want to return to the times of Napoleon, forgetting how it ended.”

Napoleon Bonaparte invaded the Russian Empire in 1812 in a disastrous six-month military campaign that ended in Russian victory.

“Napoleon carried out conquests,” Macron told reporters after a summit in Brussels. “The only imperial power that I see today in Europe is Russia.”

“He is an imperialist who seeks to rewrite history,” Macron said.