A top Kremlin adviser has revealed which locations in Britain could soon come under attack from “unknown sources”.
Andrei Fedorov, Russia’s former Deputy Foreign Minister, said Britain’s drone manufacturing factories could be attacked after Andy Burnham agreed to share top secret long-range missile blueprints with Ukraine.
In a staggering admission, Mr Fedorov refused to rule out the possibility of “semi-military” action against the UK just as the Prime Minister visited Kyiv for his first international trip.
He warned that “sooner or later, there might be not only verbal but maybe some visible reaction from Russia towards the UK”.
When pressed on what this retaliation may look like, 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.”
And when asked by BBC Newsnight what “semi-military” would mean, he said: “For example, something might happen with enterprises, with the factories which are producing drones for Ukraine, etc etc.”
When pressed on if Britain would come under direct threat from Russia, Mr Fedorov smirked, grinned, and said: “They could be attacked, not by Russia, but by… unknown sources.”
Andrei Fedorov said Britain could face ‘some visible reaction from Russia’
| BBC
Mr Burnham has allowed European defence firm MBDA to declassify information on UK components for the Scalp missile, a French-produced version of the Storm Shadow – which has been used to strike industrial targets within Russia.
This has been billed as handing Ukraine the blueprints to the devastating missile.
Vladimir Putin’s spin doctor Dmitry Peskov said the decision would add “fuel to the fire” of the conflict.
But the Prime Minister told reporters: “Who started the fire? That’s the question, isn’t it?”
Britain has faced an increasing number of threats from the Kremlin, with Russia’s withdrawal of ambassador Andrey Kelin leading to fears of a total diplomatic collapse.
Andy Burnham co-chaired a meeting of the ‘coalition of the willing’, 34 countries who have pledged their support to Ukraine
| PA
The withdrawal followed a warning of “consequences”, while Kremlin propagandist Vladimir Solovyov said the UK should be struck by nuclear-capable Poseidon torpedoes.
Just this month, Russia has launched cyber attacks on European weapons factories and storage facilities which supply Ukraine.
The Prime Minister, during his visit to Kyiv, met with President Volodymyr Zelensky as he co-chaired the so-called “coalition of the willing”, a group of 34 countries who have pledged to militarily support Ukraine.
There, he said he the coalition, established by his predecessor Sir Keir Starmer, was “doing everything we can” to “dig into our own stocks and help others dig into their stocks” of air defences.
Mr Burnham said Ukraine had been ‘Europe’s protector’
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“Ukraine has been Europe’s protector – not a drain on our security, but the front line in keeping Europe safe,” he added.
Mr Burnham also called on the US to “ratchet up” economic sanctions on Russia, arguing Moscow’s economy was faltering under a record budget deficit and declining oil revenues.
He was not the only leader to call for America to pitch in – Mr Zelensky has repeatedly urged Washington to provide more Patriot interceptor missiles, the primary system used to destroy incoming ballistic missiles.
Ukraine has received significantly fewer units because of the Iran war, where the interceptors were diverted.
Russia has sought to capitalise on the shortage by stepping up its ballistic missile strikes, killing at least 23 people and wounding more than 100 in the past three days alone.