Andy Burnham has insisted Britain will continue to “support Ukraine 100 per cent” despite Russia threatening “consequences” for strikes made with British-built drones.
Russia’s embassy to the UK said reports that Ukrainian forces had used unmanned aircraft manufactured by two UK companies “confirm that London is deliberately opting for an escalation of the Ukraine crisis”.
It accused Britain of “seeking to contain Russia and inflict maximum damage on it by proxy” and warned that the deeper its involvement becomes, “the higher the price it will pay”.
“London’s actions will inevitably carry consequences for which it will have to answer,” it said.
But the prime minister hit back, saying Britain would not be deterred by the threats. Asked what his message to Vladimir Putin was after Russia accused the UK of escalating the war, Mr Burnham said: “This is the UK doing what it has long said it would do, which is to support Ukraine 100 per cent against this illegal war led by Vladimir Putin.
“We are providing support so that Ukraine can defend itself, and that’s been the British position all the way through this conflict by previous prime ministers.
“It remains the case with me. We are not fair weather friends. We will be there in Ukraine’s hour of need, and that won’t change.”
His defiant stance comes after a government minister insisted that Britain would continue to supply Ukraine with military equipment and continue to “stand shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine”, despite Moscow’s warning.
Work and pensions minister Lilian Greenwood told Sky News on Tuesday: “The Russians should be clear that our resolve remains completely steadfast in backing our friends in Ukraine and providing them with the equipment that they need.
However, Russia’s warning has raised questions over Putin’s willingness to strike Britain, risking Nato intervention in Russia.
Andrey Fedorov, former deputy foreign minister of Russia, said there was a feeling in Moscow that Nato will not hit back at Russia, even if the UK is attacked.
“Taking into consideration current instability within Nato, current problems within Nato, it’s quite possible that Nato will do nothing,” he told BBC Radio 4.
“[It] will make a statement, or will use Article Four, but not Article Five. It’s linked first of all to Donald Trump, who is still the keeper of the keys in Nato.”
Former Tory defence secretary Grant Shapps told The Independent Nato “undoubtedly has genuine problems”, not least the political divisions within the West, but Putin “would be a fool to mistake disagreement for weakness in a moment of true crisis”.
He added: “Britain, France, Germany and Poland alone spend around $318bn a year on defence, compared with Russia’s $190bn, and I cannot imagine those countries standing aside if a Nato member were deliberately attacked.
“For all Putin’s rhetoric and bluster, his behaviour tells us something important: he still fears what Nato can do when it is stirred into action. His strategy has always been to divide, intimidate and test the alliance without triggering its overwhelming collective strength. He should be extremely careful not to miscalculate.”
Former foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind warned the UK “is a nuclear weapon state, which would make a Russian missile or drone attack a much higher risk for Putin than a non-nuclear weapon target state”.
He said he believed Nato would respond, adding, “On such a high-profile issue Trump would not veto Article 5 (which does not require that we go to war with Russia, but requires the allies to decide how to respond). Even if I am wrong, the rest of Nato (Europe plus Canada) would support the UK.”
Former national security adviser Peter Ricketts said: “This was a golden opportunity handed to a Russian propagandist to try to intimidate and divide British opinion, and he took it with gusto. The Russians have regarded us as a hostile state for many years and we have to expect their sabotage/subversion will continue. But we shouldn’t be spooked by Mr Fedorov.”
A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: “Russia should be in no doubt about the resolve of this government to stand against Russian aggression, in Ukraine and against the UK and our allies.”
Kyiv has stepped up operations inside Russia this year, increasingly deploying long-range missiles and drone swarms against military industries and energy facilities.
It has also targeted giant depots for Wildberries – Russia’s largest online retailer – burning billions of pounds of merchandise and bringing the war home to the Russian public more than four years into Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s strategy of long-range drone strikes is believed to be aimed at cutting Moscow’s revenue for the war and making Russian citizens feel the impact of the invasion, with the attacks contributing to mounting economic damage.
It launched three times as many of those strikes in July as it did in January, according to data from Acled, an independent conflict monitor.
Repeatedly hitting deep into Russia has forced its military to stretch air defences over a larger area.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence said on Saturday that it had shot down 598 Ukrainian drones over 19 Russian regions, as well as the Black and Azov Seas and the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea.
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