Russian officials responded to the Aug. 16 The Sunday Times report that the Kiev regime is using drones directly supplied by the UK for long range strikes against targets inside Russia. The operative quotation that the Russians are responding to is from an unnamed senior defense source, who told The Times that “Russia has been very effective at keeping the West nervous about hitting it too hard. These attacks mean the UK is effectively signalling to Russia and our allies that we’re not [nervous] any more.”
“Reports that the Kiev regime is using British drones to carry out strikes deep inside Russian territory confirm that London is deliberately opting for an escalation of the Ukraine crisis, while hypocritically professing a desire for peace,” the Russian embassy in London wrote in a statement. “In doing so, the United Kingdom is acting as an accomplice and co-perpetrator of the bloody crimes and terrorist attacks committed by Ukrainian neo-Nazis, seeking to contain Russia and inflict maximum damage on it by proxy. London’s actions will inevitably carry consequences for which it will have to answer. The deeper its involvement in the conflict and the greater its support for Kiev’s terrorist machinery, the higher the price it will pay.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in an excerpt of an interview with Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin posted separately by the Foreign Ministry last night, was more pointed. Zarubin noted, among other things, reports in the British media “claiming that their involvement in the drone attacks demonstrates that they are no longer concerned in the slightest about Russia’s possible response.”
