MOSCOW, Aug 27 (Reuters) – Russia warned on Thursday that it could strike British military targets inside and outside Ukraine in response to Ukrainian attacks on targets inside Russia using long-range British cruise missiles.
The warning, delivered by Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova at a news briefing in Moscow, was the strongest of is kind yet from Russia to Britain, a NATO member state and a staunch ally of Ukraine.
Zakharova said London was “one step away” from becoming legally complicit in what she called “terrorism” against Russian civilians, something she said would have “catastrophic consequences” unless Britain changed course.
“We have repeatedly warned that any British military installations and equipment in Ukraine and beyond its borders could be targeted in response to Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory carried out using British weapons,” she said.
“We propose that the British leadership once again carefully analyse the situation and immediately, in the most resolute and unequivocal manner, abandon the hostile, aggressive line, which can only … create the risk of the conflict escalating to an entirely new level,” she said.
Zakharova issued her warning a day after Russia accused Ukraine of firing British Storm Shadow missiles at a shopping centre in the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine in an attack which it said wounded civilians, including children.
The Kremlin said on Monday that Britain was methodically adding “fuel to the fire” after London announced it would allow Kyiv access to classified technology to start its own production of Storm Shadow cruise missiles, capable of carrying out strikes deep within Russia. France has already given its assent to license the technology for the European missile.
(Reporting by Dmitry AntonovEditing by Andrew Osborn)
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