Russia on Monday threatened to strike British military facilities and said it would hold drills simulating the use of battlefield nuclear weapons amid sharply rising tensions over comments by senior Western officials about possibly deeper involvement in the war in Ukraine.
After summoning the British ambassador to the Foreign Ministry, Moscow warned that Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory with U.K.-supplied weapons could bring retaliatory strikes against British military facilities and equipment on Ukrainian soil or elsewhere.
The remarks came on the eve of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inauguration to a fifth term in office and in a week when Moscow on Thursday will celebrate Victory Day, its most important secular holiday, marking its defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.
Russia on Monday threatened to strike British military facilities
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that if the Kremlin isn’t happy with the current state of the war with Ukraine, that probably wouldn’t produce a situation more to their liking.
“You better watch out!!! We’re getting our military crushed, and if you join in we’ll get our military even more crushed by you!”
These days Russia mainly strikes with misinformation campaigns and hacking attacks. Sometimes they even sabotage underseas infrastructure.
You’d* better watch out
You’re already getting your ass kicked by Ukraine, you’re not scaring anyone with threats anymore.
We’re gonna need a community called “RussiaThreatens” like “ChinaWarns” where it just collects these stories. Yeah, we know.
Authoritarian Copium
To add some icing, the phrase was originally Russian and was a household joke in Russia for decades. Russians (and Vlad Puta) know very well how unserious and comical numerous “final warnings” are.
Why do the biggest assholes always have to rattle their sabers the most? Are they compensating for something?
Because it worked to get them where they are… So they keep doing it. Ostensibly Germany’s not sending Taurus precisely because of this.
I have complained to the chancellor about that and will continue to do so. But they do provide Taurus to allies who in turn send their stock of older but similarly capable systems to Ukraine such as storm shadow.
Still, it’s silly and our weapons are only for defense against Russia anyway. We will only need Taurus ourselves if Ukraine loses. Might as well put them to use.
They hope to scare enough people to get a change. don’t let it work.
Russia has lost half a dozen ships to a nation with no navy. And they want to throw down with one as experienced as the UK? “Attacking the home of Storm Shadow missiles is a good thing” is the thought of an idiot.
The Russian navy does not seem to have a defense against explody things in the water. It seems like an oversight, but I’m not a military strategist.
Russia on Monday threatened to strike British military facilities
This is equivalent to USA threatening to strike North Korean, Iranian or Chinese facilities (all of whom have been arming Russia). No such threats have been made.
Just so we’re clear who’s escalating things.
It’s just a media game
Every time Russia says “there will be consequences” they’re just throwing threats around like a dog barking from the other side of a fence
All their cards are on the table. The only things they could pull off are drafting more people or going nuclear
They’re now scrambling to find soldiers from other nations because announcing another draft would obviously shake Putin’s control over Russia
I just wish Europe would stop playing this war like a political game. SEIZE RUSSIAN MONEY! What are you afraid of? Ruining relations with Russia? Fuck off! Ukraine won’t have people to fight forever
So true. By this point, Russia is already using everything it can, short of an actual, hot war with the west. And their military is stretched to the limit already without that.
I think this sabre rattling is still useful to them as a one-two-tactic:
- Public threat from Russia, mentioning but not directly threatening nukes (the “push” side)
- Russia-aligned media in the west publish articles saying “Putin’s threat should be taken seriously,” Russia-aligned western politicians smearing their opponents as “irresponsible war mongers”, followed by pushing for existing sanctions to be lifted, etc. (the “pull” side via stooges/crooked politicians)
SIEZE RUSSIAN MONEY!
This is exactly what they should do. But they won’t, because most of it is held in the City of London’s offshore boltholes. Seizing anything from them would scare the shit out of every big-time capitalist and corrupt politician on the planet. Would be good for us though.
It’s not equivalent. Russia is at war with Ukraine. The USA and the UK are, in theory, not a part of this war - at least not directly.
It’s the equivalent of Ukraine threatening the countries arming Russia, if those countries decided to get more directly involved in the war.
The USA gets up to a fuck ton of assbaggery around the world, but our involvement with what’s going on in the Ukraine isn’t among them.
It seems the Brits are doing something right, keep it going. Would love to see our chancellor doing the same instead of repeating the russian propaganda…
the Brits are doing something right
bout fuckin time
I’d say that we’re frequently doing something right. Unfortunately, we’re also frequently doing other things wrong.
On the one hand, National Health Service. On the other hand, ruthless colonialism…
The Conservatives are working to “fix” the NHS so that it goes in the other column.
Probably just rishi trying to secure some right wing votes for the election later in the year.
It genuinely baffles me how the conservative parties of more than a few western countries went from the hawkish party during the Cold War to Russian apologists today. The mental gymnastics are truly astounding.
yes that could be true…but in the end I welcome all support for Ukraine.
What I like about this is that in order to appeal to right wing fascism the Tories must oppose the poster-boy for right wing fascism.
What’s Russia gonna do? Lose on two fronts instead of just the one?
This comment is perfect, thank you for making my day.
it would hold drills simulating the use of battlefield nuclear weapons
Oh no, not drills. If we’re not careful they’re going to pretend to use nukes, that’s very scary.
The Ukraine invasion was preceded by drills/exercises close to the Ukraine border. It is a clear escalation, but I’d be surprised if they got more than first strike from it.
They did that because they needed a reason for their forces to be near the border (Of course it wouldn’t fool a concussed chipmunk, but that’s not relevant). This is why historically Russian military exercises often get up NATO’s nose, because Russia does this a lot, it claims " training exercises" as an excuse for its forces to be in NATO waters.
But simulating a nuclear strike doesn’t require forces to be in NATO territory or anywhere near the UK.
It’s not the exercises itself that’s the problem, it’s the fact that Russia often uses them as justification for moving forces around.
If Russia simulates a nuclear strike against London for example, how will anyone in London even notice. They’re just going to say they did it. It won’t actually involve doing anything.
I’m going to nuke Moscow. Done.
“China’s final warning”
I’d take it more seriously if the West actually became involved, but regardless of Frenchmen “shooting their mouth off” nobody’s sending troops to fight a nuclear power.
Maybe double check to see if they actually still are one. All these decades of sabre rattling and corruption in the defense industry, wouldn’t it just take the cake if hardly any of their nuclear capabilities still worked?
Yeah but how do you check?
Same way they’re planning to test article 5 ig 🤷
Prod them with a stick?
I would say no-one is sending troops yet. I really dislike any country ruling it out entirely, better to just say nothing. If the conditions change, we (NATO/Europe) will need to act. Otherwise, our leaders may well be judged by the same yardstick as the leaders keen to appease a certain country in the late 30s.
Russia has already been “appeased” multiple times.
I would tend to agree. But I think we definitely need to define a line in the sand now, not declare there is no line. Which seems to me to be what such statements say about us.
The point is “the line in the sand” has been crossed multiple times without any reaction.
There’s something weird in Putin’s hand… it’s super blurry… I think he’s shaking it really, really fast… hang on, I have a high-speed camera. Let’s see what it is.
Oh, well that makes sense. Pray, continue.
Lmao fucking try it, Putin. Make our day.
Lol
Aren’t they really just threatening to move them up in the queue?
