{"id":1172224,"date":"2026-08-27T12:30:25","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T12:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1172224\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T12:30:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T12:30:25","slug":"russia-threatens-to-bomb-uk-military-bases-over-support-for-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1172224\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia threatens to bomb UK military bases over support for Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Russia<\/a> has warned it could strike British military targets<\/a> over the UK\u2019s support for Ukraine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s foreign ministry spokesperson told the UK to back off on what she called London\u2019s hostile stance<\/a> on the war, which she said risked taking the conflict to an entirely new level.<\/p>\n

Maria Zakharova told the same Moscow news briefing earlier that Britain and France were \u201cplaying with fire\u201d by supplying sensitive missile technology to Ukraine.<\/p>\n

but the Ministry of Defence has hit back saying Russia \u201cshould be in no doubt about the resolve of this government to stand against Russian aggression, in Ukraine and against the UK and our allies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Britain announced on Monday it would allow Kyiv access to classified technology to start its own production of Storm Shadow long-range cruise missiles<\/a>, capable of carrying out strikes deep within Russia. France has already given its assent to licence the technology for the European missile.<\/p>\n

That decision has drawn strong condemnation from Russia, with president Vladimir Putin\u2019s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov saying it would add \u201cfuel to the fire\u201d of the conflict.<\/p>\n

But Andy Burnham told reporters in Kyiv during a visit earlier this week: \u201cWho started the fire?<\/a> That\u2019s the question, isn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"VladimirVladimir Putin\u2019s spokesperson said the UK is adding \u2018fuel to the fire\u2019 of the conflict (Sputnik)<\/p>\n

Russian intervention comes as tensions between the Kremlin and Downing Street continue to escalate, a week after Russia\u2019s embassy in the UK said reports that Ukrainian forces had used unmanned aircraft manufactured by two UK companies \u201cconfirm that London is deliberately opting for an escalation of the Ukraine crisis\u201d.<\/p>\n

But former ministers have said Mr Burnham must not flinch in the face of the threats.<\/p>\n

Former foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind told The Independent: \u201cThis is probably usual sabre rattling from Russia.<\/p>\n

“It is not impossible they might try a significant cyber attack or something military\u00a0 to appear macho. If they do\u00a0 they should remember that the UK has offensive cyber capability and could use it!”<\/p>\n

Former defence secretary Grant Shapps said: \u201cThe real Russian threat to this country is not a missile over Hertfordshire – it is sabotage, cyber attacks and hybrid operations against our defence industry, our undersea cables and our critical national infrastructure, deniably and by proxy. That is where ministers must harden our defences now, not after the fact.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe answer to intimidation has never been to back away from it. If London flinched every time Moscow rattled the sabre, the sabre would simply be rattled more often, and next time over Poland or the Baltics. We should say plainly to the Kremlin: your threats will not divide us from our allies, they will not slow a single delivery to Kyiv, and the fastest way to end the risk you claim to fear is to withdraw your forces from Ukraine.”<\/p>\n

Moscow accused Britain of \u201cseeking to contain Russia and inflict maximum damage on it by proxy\u201d and warned that the deeper its involvement becomes, \u201cthe higher the price it will pay\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cLondon\u2019s actions will inevitably carry consequences for which it will have to answer,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

But Mr Burnham hit back, saying Britain would not be deterred by the threats. The prime minister visited Kyiv this week in his first trip abroad since entering Downing Street.<\/p>\n

While in the capital, the UK reaffirmed its \u201cunwavering\u201d commitment to Ukraine, which in turn provided what officials described as a \u201cgoldmine<\/a>\u201d of combat data to enhance British security.<\/p>\n

\"Ukraine\u2019sUkraine\u2019s president Volodymyr Zelensky welcomes prime minister Andy Burnham to Kyiv on Monday (PA)<\/p>\n

During his visit, the prime minister urged Ukraine\u2019s allies to send more interceptor missiles to Kyiv as Ukraine struggles under continued Russian bombardment.<\/p>\n

He co-chaired his first coalition of the willing meeting, where he said the group was doing \u201ceverything we can\u201d to \u201cdig into our own stocks and help others dig into their stocks\u201d.<\/p>\n

Whilst he was visiting the country, Kremlin adviser Andrei Fedorov warned that British factories manufacturing drones for Ukraine could face targeting by \u201cunknown sources\u201d.<\/p>\n

The former deputy foreign minister for Russia stated he could not \u201c100 per cent exclude\u201d the possibility of \u201csemi-military\u201d operations directed at Britain.<\/p>\n

Mr Fedorov told BBC Newsnight that \u201csooner or later, there might be not only verbal, but maybe some visible reaction from Russia towards the UK\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"DuringDuring his visit, Burnham urged Ukraine\u2019s allies to send more interceptor missiles to Kyiv as Ukraine struggles under continued Russian bombardment (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n

Asked to elaborate, he said: \u201cThere are different discussions how it should look \u2013 it might be so-called technical reaction, maybe some hacker attack from an unknown source, not from official level of course.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere might be different political steps, and I cannot exclude 100 per cent that there might be some semi-military, for example.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pressed to define \u201csemi-military\u201d, he said: \u201cFor example, something might happen with enterprises, with the factories which are producing drones for Ukraine, etc etc.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked whether this meant British factories in Britain being attacked militarily by Russia, the adviser said: \u201cThey could be attacked, not by Russia, but by… from unknown sources.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: “Britain stands shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine and we are committed to providing the equipment Ukraine needs to defend itself against Putin\u2019s illegal invasion.<\/p>\n

\u201cRussia 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.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1172225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[17943,5293,129734,105,44888,1867,12,285,17944,16,15],"class_list":["post-1172224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","category-united-kingdom","tag-bestof","tag-diplomacy","tag-essential","tag-health","tag-horizontal","tag-hospital","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-topix","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117167484288362120","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1172224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1172225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1172224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1172224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1172224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}