Vladimir Putin appeared to smile as he escalated his rhetoric toward Britain, suggesting that whether Russian forces could strike UK factories was something he would only describe as a “military secret.”
Speaking in an interview with Russian state broadcaster RT, the Kremlin leader delivered the warning days after Britain agreed to provide Ukraine with classified plans linked to long-range missile production.
Pressed on whether British military-industrial sites on UK soil could be viewed as legitimate targets, Putin smirked and answered: “That’s a secret, a military secret.”
He was more direct about any British military facilities operating inside Ukraine, saying they would “absolutely” fall within Russia’s list of targets.
Putin made the remarks during a late-night press conference in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, following his attendance at the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation summit.
His taunt was the latest increasingly brazen threat from Moscow to target British military and defence companies after the UK increased its support for Ukraine.
Russian foreign ministry spokesman Maria Zakharova warned last week that ‘any British military installations and equipment in Ukraine and beyond its borders’ could be attacked in retaliation for Ukrainian strikes on Russia using British 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
Prime Minister Andy Burnham last week agreed 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 in Suffolk, Ruislip in west London and Leicester.
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Putin’s Security Council and a close 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 yesterday that his country’s drones would make Russia’s airspace ‘completely unsafe’ for the duration of the war, drawing accusations of ‘state terrorism’ from Putin.
Both sides have intensified long-range attacks in recent months and diplomatic efforts led by the US 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,’ Mr 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 after a Russian drone strike on a shopping centre in Zaporizhzhia
Emergency services personnel tend to a resident following a Russian air strike in Kramatorsk, Ukraine
A view shows the destroyed and burned warehouse of a supermarket following the air strike in Kramatorsk
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A burnt-out hypermarket in occupied Donetsk following an overnight Ukrainian drone strike
Putin responded by branding Mr 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,’ Mr 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 sq 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.’
It comes as Germany on Tuesday blamed Russia for an attempted ‘hybrid attack’ involving an explosive-laden drone at a strategic airport last month and announced diplomatic counter-measures.
Police used a robot to defuse the device found near a Ukrainian cargo plane, and another drone was reportedly found weeks later near the airport, also with traces of an explosive substance.
The European Union expressed ‘full solidarity’ with Germany, Nato assured that it would defend its members and countries including Britain, France and Poland offered strong backing.
Germany will close Russia’s consulate in the former capital Bonn later this month, and cancel the contract for the Russian House, a cultural centre in Berlin, said Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul.
‘We are tightening entry controls for Russian nationals’ and Germany would propose the listing of more Russian individuals for European Union sanctions, he added, as the Russian ambassador to Berlin was summoned.
Putin later branded the sanctions move ‘another mistake, a serious one’, saying it ‘clearly runs counter to the interests of the German people’.
The Russian embassy said in a message on Telegram that the ambassador Sergei Nechayev ‘rejected Berlin’s accusations as unsubstantiated, absurd’, and warned they would ‘not be without consequences’.
Germany’s top diplomat also vowed that ‘we are increasing pressure on the Russian shadow fleet’ – a term for the old oil tankers and other cargo ships with opaque ownership Russia uses to get around Western sanctions.
On Tuesday, a major power plant in Germany was targeted with ‘homemade explosive rockets’.
Local media reported that a key installation near the Janschwalde coal-fired power plant in Brandenburg was repeatedly targeted with rockets, while emergency services discovered and defused additional devices.
An explosive-disposal robot is being deployed near a Ukrainian aircraft at Leipzig/Halle Airport
The Russian House of Science and Culture in Berlin, a seven-story building opened in 1984 in what was then East Berlin, is located near the Russian embassy
Police cordon off the area near the train station in the southern German city of Augsburg
And today, police completely closed the train station in the southern German city of Augsburg after one object exploded and another suspicious object was found nearby. Trains were no longer running.
The first unidentified object exploded in a building passageway, officials said. Several people sustained minor injuries due to the loud sound of the explosion. Some windows were also damaged.
Explosives experts from the Bavarian state criminal police office were investigating at the scene. Reports have suggested the explosion is related to gang violence.
Moscow has already been accused of waging a shadow war across Europe through sabotage, cyber attacks, drones, disinformation and intimidation – tactics designed to cause disruption while staying below the threshold for a military response.
Russian cyber units have targeted critical systems including power plants since at least the mid-2010s.
On the day Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, a cyber attack against the Viasat satellite internet system caused outages across central and eastern Europe. The EU, US and UK later condemned the attack as Russian.
Nordic and Baltic countries have also recently reported increased GPS jamming and spoofing since 2022, affecting civilian aircraft, ships and drones.