MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Moscow warns the UK of “consequences” over British drones used against its territory
Britain's Ministry of Defence responded that the country stands “shoulder to shoulder” with Ukraine Russia's embassy in London has accused the British government of deliberately opting for an escalation of the Ukraine conflict, after it emerged that British-made drones were used in strikes on targets inside Russian territory. “In doing so, the United Kingdom is acting as an accomplice and co-perpetrator of the bloody crimes and terrorist attacks,” it said in a statement.
“London's actions will inevitably carry consequences for which it will have to answer,” the mission added, warning that the deeper Britain's involvement in the conflict, “the higher the price it will pay.”
Britain's Ministry of Defence responded that the country stands “shoulder to shoulder” with Ukraine. “Russia should be in no doubt about the resolve of this Government to stand against Russian aggression, in Ukraine and against the UK and our allies,” a spokesperson said, reiterating the commitment to supply Kyiv with the equipment it needs to defend itself.
The controversy stems from a report in The Sunday Times that Ukraine used drones produced by two British companies in its deep-strike campaign. A military source confirmed to the BBC that the aircraft had been used. Neither company has been publicly identified and the ministry neither confirmed nor denied their specific use. It would be the first verified use of British drones in cross-border strikes on Russian territory since the invasion began in February 2022.
Targets hit include oil refineries in Volgograd and Yaroslavl and warehouses belonging to the online retailer Wildberries. Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said drones using British components and configurations had been used against Russian territory, including a fuel depot in the Kamensky district of Rostov region. Kyiv says it has disabled seven of the company's ten largest logistics centres. Various reports put the cumulative economic damage from the campaign at more than 35 billion pounds, an estimate that has not been independently verified.
Russia has issued similar warnings before: it summoned the British ambassador in November 2022 over the attack on the Black Sea Fleet, and in May 2024 threatened to strike British military installations inside and outside Ukraine.
Overnight, according to Russian officials, some 620 drones were directed towards the Moscow region, of which air defences destroyed more than 180, with several people wounded. A Wildberries warehouse was hit and the company reported minor damage. In Ukraine, Zaporizhzhia governor Ivan Fedorov reported at least two dead and four injured, and 1,158 Russian strikes on 59 settlements over 24 hours. None of these tolls can be independently verified.
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Read all commentsShogun
Posted 6 days ago +1Well clearly neither do you, that advise is valid and can make the difference between life and death.
Just so you know, Novichok is lethal in miniscule amounts but degrades quickly in the environment, hence the Skripals survived because they came home several hours after the agent was applied to the house door handles.
Any sooner and they would have been dead.
The woman who died got a dose of the neat agent from the discarded fake perfume bottle.
And I remember your confident predictions about a Russian victory in Ukraine, no going so well for them now, is it?
Russian battlefield gains, if any, are measured in metres and at a cost of thousands of casualties. They are now losing more men than their conscription is replacing, but the Ukrainians are maintaining their combat strength.
Ukrainian drones (many British made) strike military and economic targets all over Russia, causing havoc for the Russian military and shortages for civilians.
While the Russians continue to hit civilian targets with no military or economic value.
There is no shortage of petrol in Ukraine, but there is in Russia.
Go figure.
Shogun
Posted 4 days ago +1Yes, it has been a while.
The only thing I would add to the ‘baby wipes’ is wear rubber gloves when you do it.
It’s not going as badly for the Ukrainians as it was, but they have fought the Russians to a standstill, which is an improvement for them.
It is not going well for the Russians and that is for sure, they have been stopped, dead on the battlefield, literally.
The Russians are now recruiting in Africa, amongst other places and have at least 12,000 N. Korean troops fighting for them, problems is when they are captured, they don’t want to be exchanged for Ukrainian prisoners, they are supposed to die before surrendering and face a death sentence back home.
With a stalemate on the battlefield, we are now into a war of long-range drone/missile strikes.
Where the Russians continue to hit civilian targets, like today a ‘double tap’ strike on a shopping centre, or gas and electricity stations, things which have no military or economic value, in an attempt to break the will of the Ukrainian people.
History has shown on many occasions that this doesn’t work, and it won’t work here.
Whether Ukraine can do enough damage to military and economic targets in Russia to force a change in Putin’s thinking, I very much doubt, however others in Russia will realise this is now unwinnable for them.
Putin’s ‘special military operation’ supposed to last a few weeks, like Trumps ‘short war on Iran’ has gone on much longer than either of them expected, the difference is the US hasn’t suffered a million or so casualties and crippled their economy in the process, and still has a good chance of winning, in the end.
Is the reality.
Holiday beach and shopping mall were drones shot down on their way to targets. The Ukrainians do not have the luxury of wasting munitions on targets with no military or economic value.
Posted 3 days ago +1Common sense if you think about it, but the Russians (specifically Putin) still believes in punishing people to break their will to fight and that in a nutshell is why they are not winning that war, which they are most definitely not.
Since the Ukrainians sank most of the Russian Black Sea fleet and virtually all their tankers carrying fuel to Crimea, nothing Russian in the Black Sea now.
The Ukrainians are moving grain, not in the same quantities as before, they have been finding alternative routes since the war began.
A ‘stable Novichok’ is possible but would be of no use, it’s a tactical military weapon, after you kill everyone, you want to be able to occupy the place without killing your own troops.
As for the boyfriend, I don’t know where you get your information from but a google AI search says:
Details of the Incident
The Discovery: Rowley found a discarded luxury perfume box (counterfeit Nina Ricci Premier Jour) in a charity collection bin in Salisbury. Unbeknownst to him, the bottle inside contained a high concentration of the military-grade nerve agent Novichok, which was linked to the earlier poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
The Poisoning: In June 2018, Rowley gave the bottle to Sturgess at his home in Amesbury. She applied the substance to her wrists and became critically ill within 15 minutes.
The Aftermath: Sturgess died in the hospital on 8 July 2018. Rowley also came into contact with the nerve agent while handling the bottle's spray dispenser but survived after receiving critical care for several weeks. He has since reported enduring long-term physical and mental health challenges, including issues with his vision, balance, and immune system.
And Litvinenko was poisoned by Polonium from the tap water I suppose.
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