Putin Calls UK Strike Plans a 'Military Secret'
Putin Calls UK Strike Plans a 'Military Secret'
The News
Vladimir Putin refused to rule out Russian strikes on British military sites, telling Russian state channel RT it is "a secret, a military secret" whether UK defense plants on British soil could become targets.
The Russian president was speaking at a nighttime press conference in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, after attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit, according to the Daily Mail.
He was more direct about Ukraine itself: "Any military facilities in Ukraine are our legitimate target, British or otherwise," Putin said, per The Independent.
The warning follows Britain's agreement last month to give Ukraine classified blueprints for the Scalp weapon, a version of the Storm Shadow long-range cruise missile that London has already supplied to Kyiv.
Timeline
Russia's defense ministry published a list of 23 sites in Britain and continental Europe it said were involved in making Ukrainian drones or supplying components. British addresses on the list included locations in Mildenhall in Suffolk, Ruislip in west London and Leicester, the Daily Mail reported.
The UK agreed to provide Ukraine with blueprints for the Scalp missile, allowing the long-range weapon to be manufactured in Ukraine, The Independent reported.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham traveled to Kyiv on his first foreign trip as prime minister, meeting Volodymyr Zelensky and marking the 35th anniversary of Ukraine's independence from the Soviet Union.
Russia accused the UK of "playing with fire" over the missile technology transfer.
Putin told reporters in Bishkek that Russia is advancing in Ukraine and that "I have no doubt the enemy will crumble."
RT aired the exchange in which Putin declined to say whether British defense industrial sites on UK territory are targets.
Reactions
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned last week that "any British military installations and equipment in Ukraine and beyond its borders" could be hit in retaliation for Ukrainian strikes on Russia using British weapons. She accused London of being "one step away" from complicity in what Moscow calls terrorism and warned of "inevitable catastrophic consequences," according to the Daily Mail.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow has a right to treat the "direct involvement of British missile forces" as "participation in the war, with all the ensuring consequences," The Independent reported.
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Putin's Security Council, said the list of European drone-making facilities "is a list of potential targets for the Russian armed forces," adding: "Sleep well, European partners!"
Burnham pushed back during his Kyiv visit: "Who started the fire? That's the question, isn't it?" In a speech outside Kyiv's St Sophia cathedral he said, "Despite Russia's outrageous threats to my country, we will continue our support for Ukraine," calling Ukraine "Europe's protector, not a drain on our security, but the front line in keeping Europe safe."
What's Next
Chancellor John Healey is under pressure to raise British defense spending at Burnham's first Budget. Healey says he is "100 per cent" committed to a target of 3 per cent of GDP and is now offering a timeline, though questions remain over how the increase would be funded, The Independent reported.
On Tuesday, Healey used his first international meetings with G7 counterparts in North Carolina to announce a crackdown on Russian sanctions evasion, targeting the so-called "A7 network." The Foreign Office says A7 has been used to move funds around existing restrictions. The maximum fine available to the Office for Financial Sanctions Implementation will double from 50 per cent to 100 per cent of the value of a breach.
On Monday, the National Crime Agency and the government issued the first nationwide alert against A7 to help the private sector detect evasion.
More
Analysts quoted by the Daily Mail note that any Russian retaliation is more likely to take the form of sabotage, cyberattacks, intimidation or recruited criminal proxies than open missile strikes, which would risk triggering NATO's collective-defense provisions. British troops are currently based at Tapa Camp in Estonia, about 75 miles from the Russian border.
Putin acknowledged Tuesday that Ukrainian deep strikes have done real damage: "The adversary began delivering strikes on our civilian facilities, including on refineries. Did it cause damage? It did." He dismissed talk of a new Russian mobilization as "utter nonsense."
Zelensky warned in his nightly address that Ukrainian drones would make Russian airspace "completely unsafe" for the duration of the war, telling airlines and insurers that "drone-infested skies are no place for civilian aviation." Putin accused Kyiv of "state terrorism" over the remarks. US-led diplomatic efforts remain stalled more than four years into the full-scale invasion.
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