Vladimir Putin taunted Britain today, refusing to say whether UK defence plants — including facilities linked to drone production — could be targeted by Russia, calling the matter a “military secret.”
The Kremlin leader was pressed on the issue by Russian state broadcaster RT, which asked: “Could British military industrial facilities located on British territory become military targets?”
Putin, smiling as he answered, replied: “That’s a secret, a military secret.”
He was far more direct when asked about any British military facilities operating inside Ukraine, saying they would “absolutely” be considered targets by Moscow.
“If there are, then absolutely, I can confirm once again: any military facilities in Ukraine are our legitimate target, British or otherwise,” he said.
Putin made the remarks during a late-night press conference in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, after attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit.
The “military secret” comment follows a series of increasingly blunt threats from Moscow aimed at Britain’s military and defence sector over the UK’s continued support for Ukraine.
Last week, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned that “any British military installations and equipment in Ukraine and beyond its borders” could be struck in response to Ukrainian attacks on Russia carried out with British-supplied weapons.
Putin made clear that any ‘British military facilities’ inside Ukraine were ‘absolutely’ a Russian target
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham met with Volodymyr Zelensky last week in Kyiv
This followed British Prime Minister Andy Burnham agreeing to supply Kyiv with the classified blueprints for lethal Storm Shadow missiles, allowing them to be manufactured by Ukraine.
Zakharova’s threats left open possible attacks not only in Ukraine but against British interests in the UK or third countries, for example army troops now based at Tapa Camp in Estonia, just 75 miles from the Russian border.
She accused London of being ‘one step away’ from complicity in what Moscow calls terrorism and warned of ‘inevitable catastrophic consequences’.
In April, Russia’s defence ministry published a list of 23 sites in Britain and continental Europe allegedly involved in making Ukrainian drones or supplying their components.
British addresses included locations in Mildenhall, Suffolk, Ruislip in west London and Leicester.
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Putin’s Security Council and a close Putin ally, declared: ‘The list of European facilities which make drones and other equipment is a list of potential targets for the Russian armed forces.’
He added the chilling warning: ‘When strikes become a reality depends on what comes next. Sleep well, European partners!’
The Russian embassy in London has separately warned that Britain will face consequences over reports that British-made drones were used for long-range attacks inside Russia, declaring: ‘The deeper its involvement, the higher the price it will pay.’
Any Russian targeting could involve hybrid strikes rather than direct attacks which risk triggering NATO’s collective-defence provisions.
Moscow is seen as more likely to employ sabotage, cyberattacks, intimidation or criminals recruited as proxies to target companies helping arm Ukraine.
During his speech on Tuesday, Putin claimed that Russia was winning the war in Ukraine.
In his most detailed comments on the war for many weeks, the Russian leader acknowledged that Ukrainian attacks inside Russia had inflicted real damage and said that drones posed a particular challenge.
‘The adversary began delivering strikes on our civilian facilities, including on refineries. Did it cause damage? It did,’ Putin said.
‘And why? Among other reasons, and above all, because they were not protected.’
But he said that Russia was advancing on the battlefield and told reporters: ‘I have no doubt the enemy will crumble.’
Rumours that Russia would be forced to order a new military mobilisation were ‘utter nonsense,’ he said.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Tuesday that his country’s drones would make Russia’s airspace ‘completely unsafe’ for the duration of the war, drawing accusations of ‘state terrorism’ from Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Both sides have intensified long-range attacks in recent months and diplomatic efforts led by the United States remain stalled more than four years into Russia’s full-scale invasion.
‘Today, we want to warn every airline that uses Russian airspace, every insurer and everyone who still uses Russia’s key airports: Russian airspace is becoming completely unsafe,’ Zelensky said in his nightly address.
‘Ukraine does not threaten civilian aviation as such – not a single civilian aircraft. There will simply be drones in Russia’s skies on a scale that has to be taken into account,’ he said.
Air traffic at Russian airports has been repeatedly disrupted by the approach of Ukrainian drones, the number of which has increased in recent months.
‘Drone-infested skies are no place for civilian aviation,’ Zelensky said. ‘The sky over Russia is currently for drones… as long as the war continues.’
Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a Russian drone strike on a shopping mall in Zaporizhzhia
Emergency services personnel tend to a resident following a Russian airstrike in Kramatorsk, Ukraine
A view shows the destroyed and burned warehouse of a supermarket following a Russian airstrike in Kramatorsk
Burnt-out hypermarket following an overnight Ukrainian drone strike, in the course of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in Donetsk
Putin responded by branding Zelensky’s comments ‘a declaration of state terrorism’.
‘They are asking us to resume negotiations… but you don’t negotiate with terrorists,’ Putin said during the televised news conference.
The hardening stances came after fresh Russian missile and drone strikes killed at least 12 people in Kyiv and the surrounding region.
‘We in Ukraine do not want innocent lives to be lost. That is why we are warning our partners: the safe days in Russia’s skies are over,’ Zelensky said.
Four and a half years into the war, Russia controls about a fifth of Ukraine. US-mediated peace talks broke off in February after the United States and Israel went to war with Iran.
Opinion polls suggest growing war fatigue in Russia and influential voices are warning about the strain on its economy.
But Putin struck a confident, hawkish tone as he rattled through a detailed version of developments on the front line, saying Russian advances were accelerating.
Russian troops had captured 270 square km (104 sq miles) of the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine in August and two large groups of Ukrainian troops – one comprising 4,500 to 4,800 men, the other up to 2,000 – were surrounded, he claimed.
Russia continues to advance towards the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, Putin said, adding that Moscow’s forces were preparing to launch massive strikes against energy infrastructure in Ukraine.
He also said, however, that Moscow was open to talks aimed at ending, rather than freezing, the war, and restated its willingness to talk to US President Donald Trump’s envoys.
‘If someone makes, or can make, a tangible contribution to this process, we are all in favour,’ Putin said.
‘The only thing we would want to avoid is the process spinning its wheels pointlessly.
However, if someone is capable of bringing something positive to these negotiations – which, as we understand it, are currently somewhat frozen – then, generally speaking, we are not opposed.’
