Russia has escalated its threats against Britain, warning that British military interests could be targeted in retaliation for London’s decision to share technology enabling Ukraine to manufacture Storm Shadow long-range missiles.
Maria Zakharova, Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman, accused Britain and France of “playing with fire” by supplying sensitive missile technology to Kyiv and warned that Britain’s increasingly direct support for Ukraine risked pushing the war into “an entirely new level”.
The confrontation follows the UK government’s decision to give Ukraine access to classified technology needed to begin domestic production of Storm Shadow cruise missiles, weapons capable of striking targets deep inside Russian territory.
France has already approved the licensing of the technology.
Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, condemned the decision as adding “fuel to the fire”.
Andy Burnham, speaking to reporters in Kyiv during his first foreign trip as prime minister, responded bluntly: “Who started the fire? That’s the question, isn’t it?”
The exchange marks a further deterioration in relations between Moscow and Downing Street as Britain moves towards a more deeply integrated military partnership with Kyiv.
Russia’s embassy in Britain last week accused London of deliberately escalating the conflict after reports that Ukrainian forces had used unmanned aircraft manufactured by two British companies.
It claimed Britain was “seeking to contain Russia and inflict maximum damage on it by proxy” and warned that the deeper British involvement became, “the higher the price it will pay”.
“London’s actions will inevitably carry consequences for which it will have to answer,” the embassy said.
Burnham has nevertheless signalled that such warnings will not alter Britain’s support for Ukraine.
During his visit to Kyiv, he reaffirmed the UK’s “unwavering” commitment to Ukraine and said the country had provided what British officials described as a “goldmine” of battlefield data that could strengthen the UK’s own defences.
The prime minister also urged Ukraine’s allies to supply more interceptor missiles as Kyiv faces sustained Russian missile and drone attacks.
At his first meeting of the coalition of the willing, he said members were doing “everything we can” to “dig into our own stocks and help others dig into their stocks”.
But the Kremlin’s warnings have increasingly moved beyond diplomatic condemnation.
Andrei Fedorov, a Kremlin adviser and former Russian deputy foreign minister, warned that British factories producing drones for Ukraine could become targets.
He said he could not “100% exclude” the possibility of “semi-military” operations against Britain.
Speaking to BBC Newsnight, Mr Fedorov said: “sooner or later, there might be not only verbal, but maybe some visible reaction from Russia towards the UK”.
Asked what form such a response could take, he said: “There are different discussions how it should look like – it might be so-called technical reaction, maybe some hackers attack from unknown source, not from official level of course.
“There might be different political steps and I cannot exclude 100 per cent that there might be some semi-military, for example.”
Pressed to explain what he meant by “semi-military”, Mr Fedorov said: “For example, something might happen with enterprises, with the factories which are producing drones for Ukraine, etc etc.”
Asked directly whether he meant British factories could be attacked militarily inside Britain, he replied: “They could be attacked, not by Russia, but by… from unknown sources.”
The threat underscores the growing significance of Britain’s defence-industrial base to Ukraine’s war effort. London has worked with manufacturers to expand drone production and is increasingly seeking to move Ukraine from reliance on foreign supplies towards domestic manufacture of advanced weapons.
For Moscow, that shift risks making British defence companies part of the battlefield by proxy.
For London, retreating in response to threats would carry its own strategic cost.
The result is a dangerous escalation in which military technology, industrial capacity and covert operations are becoming increasingly intertwined — raising the prospect that the confrontation between Russia and Britain could extend beyond Ukraine’s borders.
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