Russia has threatened strikes on British military installations in \u2018Ukraine and beyond\u2019 and plans nuclear drills in response to remarks by U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron and other Western officials.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Moscow summoned British ambassador to the Russian Federation Nigel Casey in \u2018strong protest\u2019 to Cameron\u2019s recent interview with Reuters \u2018about Ukraine\u2019s right to strike Russian territory using British weapons,\u2019 the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement released on Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018Casey firmly pointed out that D. Cameron\u2019s hostile attack directly contradicts the previously sounded assurances of the British side when transferring long-range cruise missiles to the Kyiv regime, that under no circumstances would they be used on Russian territory,\u2019 the statement continued. \u2018Thus, the head of the Foreign Office disavowed this position, de facto recognizing his country as a party to the conflict.\u2019<\/p>\n
The ministry said that the Russian side \u2018views D. Cameron\u2019s words as evidence of a serious escalation and confirmation of London\u2019s increasing involvement in military operations on the side of Kyiv.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018N. Casey was warned that the response to Ukrainian strikes using British weapons on Russian territory could be any British military facilities and equipment on the territory of Ukraine and beyond,\u2019 the ministry said. \u2018The Ambassador was called upon to think about the inevitable catastrophic consequences of such hostile steps from London and to immediately refute in the most decisive and unequivocal manner the bellicose provocative statements of the head of the Foreign Office.\u2019<\/p>\n
The remarks came on the eve of Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Drills simulating the use of battlefield nuclear weapons come in response to \u2018provocative statements and threats of certain Western officials regarding the Russian Federation,\u2019 Russia\u2019s Defense Ministry also said in a statement. It was the first time Russia has publicly announced drills involving tactical nuclear weapons, although its strategic nuclear forces regularly hold exercises, according to the Associated Press.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tactical nuclear weapons include air bombs, warheads for short-range missiles and artillery munitions and are meant for use on a battlefield. They are less powerful than the strategic weapons \u2014 massive warheads that arm intercontinental ballistic missiles and are intended to obliterate entire cities.<\/p>\n
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric expressed concern that various parties have been talking about issues regarding nuclear weapons more and more recently.<\/p>\n
\u2018Current nuclear risks are at an alarmingly high level,\u2019 Dujarric said. \u2018All actions that could lead to miscalculation, escalation with catastrophic consequences, must be avoided.\u2019<\/p>\n
The Russian announcement was a warning to Ukraine\u2019s Western allies about becoming more deeply engaged in the 2-year-old war, where the Kremlin\u2019s forces have gained an upper hand amid Ukraine\u2019s shortage of manpower and weapons. Some of Ukraine\u2019s Western partners have previously expressed concern that the conflict could spill beyond Ukraine into a war between NATO and Russia.<\/p>\n
French President Emmanuel Macron repeated last week that he does not exclude sending troops to Ukraine, and Cameron said Kyiv\u2019s forces will be able to use British long-range weapons to strike targets inside Russia. Some other NATO countries providing weapons to Kyiv have balked at that possibility.<\/p>\n
\u2018Ukraine has that right. Just as Russia is striking inside Ukraine, you can quite understand why Ukraine feels the need to make sure it\u2019s defending itself,\u2019 Cameron told Reuters last week.<\/p>\n
The Kremlin branded those comments as dangerous, heightening tension between Russia and NATO. The war already has placed significant strain on relations between Moscow and the West.<\/p>\n
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that Macron\u2019s recent statement and other remarks by British and U.S. officials had prompted the nuclear drills.<\/p>\n
\u2018It\u2019s a new round of escalation,\u2019 Peskov said, referring to what the Kremlin regarded as provocative statements. \u2018It\u2019s unprecedented and requires special attention and special measures.\u2019<\/p>\n
Russia\u2019s Foreign Ministry also summoned France\u2019s ambassador.<\/p>\n
The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/p>\n\n
Russia has threatened strikes on British military installations in \u2018Ukraine and beyond\u2019 and plans nuclear drills in response to remarks by U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron and other Western officials.\u00a0 Moscow summoned British ambassador to the Russian Federation Nigel Casey in \u2018strong protest\u2019 to Cameron\u2019s recent interview with Reuters \u2018about Ukraine\u2019s right to strike Russian <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":18796,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18795","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}