Russia threatens Britain with retaliation if involvement in Ukraine war deepens

Russia on Monday threatened to strike British military facilities and said it would hold drills simulating the use of battlefield nuclear weapons amid sharply rising tensions over comments by senior Western officials about possibly deeper involvement in the war in Ukraine.

After summoning the British ambassador to the Foreign Ministry, Moscow warned that Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory with U.K.-supplied weapons could bring retaliatory strikes against British military facilities and equipment on Ukrainian soil or elsewhere.

The remarks came on the eve of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s 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.

pwalshj,

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/a3d85958-fede-4c1a-8cb1-57adddfd647b.gif

gravitas_deficiency,

Lmao fucking try it, Putin. Make our day.

EatATaco,

Holy shit what the fuck is wrong with you basically begging for a war between two major powers? We all hate Putin, but fuck that would not be good for anyone.

gravitas_deficiency,

Because it’s a fucking bluff dude.

FluffyPotato,

The UK hasn’t been a major power in like at least 2 decades. If you mean NATO then Russia isn’t really a major power in comparison to NATO. Not that it’s important, Russia isn’t stupid enough to pick a fight with NATO.

skulblaka,
@skulblaka@startrek.website avatar

It would be really bad for a small group of people and would save the lives of hundreds of thousands of others. Say Putin does strike Britain. A bunch of people die in the initial strike. Then Britain, America, Poland, Germany, Ukraine, France, Canada, and probably a handful of others all collectively turn the Kremlin into glass and dust in a retaliatory strike. China and North Korea both rattle their sabers about it but neither of them wants to throw down with the Allies 2.0 because it doesn’t matter who you are, going to outright war with a world cooperative force is a capital-letters Bad Idea.

Otherwise Putin continues to slowly grind his way across Eurasia for the next decade while every other country’s politicians hem and haw about who they want to help and how much. Meanwhile thousands of people die daily as the Russian meat wave slides its way down toward the central EU.

There’s a very good reason that Putin has been performing military ops in Ukraine and only vaguely threatening everyone else that got involved. He knows that if he manages to actually draw the ire of the full Allied military might the remaining lifespan of his army and capitol will be measured in minutes.

If this were just a straight up shooting war it would have been done and dusted two years ago. Instead it’s a political war, and that’s stopping a bunch of politicians from actually making a move on it. Nobody wants to be the guy that started World War 3, and Putin is leveraging that to enormous effect.

ChicoSuave,

Russia has lost half a dozen ships to a nation with no navy. And they want to throw down with one as experienced as the UK? “Attacking the home of Storm Shadow missiles is a good thing” is the thought of an idiot.

echodot,

The Russian navy does not seem to have a defense against explody things in the water. It seems like an oversight, but I’m not a military strategist.

captainlezbian,

They’re still following their WWII and czarist military doctrine of “we have more people and resources than you”. It’s a shame that Russian military leadership will forever be associated with this instead of having a second chance to demonstrate the actual might and strategy of Trotsky’s red army.

It sometimes seems like being in power in Russia destroys your ability to have sensible military strategy

Snowpix,
@Snowpix@lemmy.ca avatar

You don’t rise in the ranks of the Russian military by being competent, you rise by kissing enough asses and having the right connections.

squid_slime,

RIP Trosky. fuck Stalin the absolute cowered

IchNichtenLichten,
@IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.world avatar

They could deploy their only aircraft carrier, that’ll show ‘em.

Oh, wait, never mind.

“The ship has been out of service and in repairs since 2018. The repair process has been hampered by accidents, embezzlement of funds, and other setbacks. After the floating drydock PD-50 sank in Kola Bay (Murmansk) in an accident that killed one worker in October 2018, the ship was towed to Sevmorput Yard No 35. In another mishap in December 2019, a major fire killed at least one worker and injured ten others. In June 2022, the ship was transferred to a drydock at the 35th Ship Repair Plant in Murmansk, where it remained until February 2023. The current projection is that repairs will be completed and the ship will be transferred back to the Russian Navy sometime in 2024, however this may be pushed back to 2025 if issues arise during overhaul and testing”

en.wikipedia.org/…/Russian_aircraft_carrier_Admir…

ASeriesOfPoorChoices,

now, to be very upfront about this: I do NOT want to fuck around and find out, but…

it wouldn’t surprise me if Russia’s entire nuclear arsenal is in a similar state of repair.

vaultdweller013,

Even if the warheads are working I would question everything else.

ASeriesOfPoorChoices,

siphon out the jetfuel for their heaters.

IchNichtenLichten,
@IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.world avatar

Stripping the copper out and selling it for vodka money?

samus12345,
@samus12345@lemmy.world avatar

They have a lot of them, odds are at least some of them still work.

rimu,
@rimu@piefed.social avatar

Russia on Monday threatened to strike British military facilities

This is equivalent to USA threatening to strike North Korean, Iranian or Chinese facilities (all of whom have been arming Russia). No such threats have been made.

Just so we're clear who's escalating things.

c10l,

It’s not equivalent. Russia is at war with Ukraine. The USA and the UK are, in theory, not a part of this war - at least not directly.

It’s the equivalent of Ukraine threatening the countries arming Russia, if those countries decided to get more directly involved in the war.

Shampiss,

It’s just a media game

Every time Russia says “there will be consequences” they’re just throwing threats around like a dog barking from the other side of a fence

All their cards are on the table. The only things they could pull off are drafting more people or going nuclear

They’re now scrambling to find soldiers from other nations because announcing another draft would obviously shake Putin’s control over Russia

I just wish Europe would stop playing this war like a political game. SEIZE RUSSIAN MONEY! What are you afraid of? Ruining relations with Russia? Fuck off! Ukraine won’t have people to fight forever

cygon,

So true. By this point, Russia is already using everything it can, short of an actual, hot war with the west. And their military is stretched to the limit already without that.

I think this sabre rattling is still useful to them as a one-two-tactic:

  1. Public threat from Russia, mentioning but not directly threatening nukes (the “push” side)
  2. Russia-aligned media in the west publish articles saying “Putin’s threat should be taken seriously,” Russia-aligned western politicians smearing their opponents as “irresponsible war mongers”, followed by pushing for existing sanctions to be lifted, etc. (the “pull” side via stooges/crooked politicians)
Churbleyimyam,

SIEZE RUSSIAN MONEY!

This is exactly what they should do. But they won’t, because most of it is held in the City of London’s offshore boltholes. Seizing anything from them would scare the shit out of every big-time capitalist and corrupt politician on the planet. Would be good for us though.

psycho_driver,

The USA gets up to a fuck ton of assbaggery around the world, but our involvement with what’s going on in the Ukraine isn’t among them.

captainlezbian,

Yeah if we’d done this in Vietnam it wouldn’t be great because Ho Chi Minh was the elected leader of Vietnam, but the Vietnam war wouldn’t’ve been the absolute shit show it was. Frankly most of our wars should’ve been this

UnderpantsWeevil,
@UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

The US is fighting dirty in every country but Ukraine?

DragonTypeWyvern,

If you’re not fighting dirty you’re not fighting to win.

This just happens to be one of those times were we get to (help) fight fascists instead of people that want food and human rights

Honytawk,

Can’t fight dirty in them if you are not there.

UnderpantsWeevil,
@UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

We’re there

rayyy,

Times are tough for Russia. Putin has put a lot of his resources into cheaper alternatives like threats and cyber warfare. He is hoping, and aiding with psyops, his ally stooges, the House Putin faction and Donald Von Shitzinpantz to steal the presidency soon.

echodot,

it would hold drills simulating the use of battlefield nuclear weapons

Oh no, not drills. If we’re not careful they’re going to pretend to use nukes, that’s very scary.

KidnappedByKitties,

deleted_by_author

    •
    echodot,

    They did that because they needed a reason for their forces to be near the border (Of course it wouldn’t fool a concussed chipmunk, but that’s not relevant). This is why historically Russian military exercises often get up NATO’s nose, because Russia does this a lot, it claims " training exercises" as an excuse for its forces to be in NATO waters.

    But simulating a nuclear strike doesn’t require forces to be in NATO territory or anywhere near the UK.

    It’s not the exercises itself that’s the problem, it’s the fact that Russia often uses them as justification for moving forces around.

    If Russia simulates a nuclear strike against London for example, how will anyone in London even notice. They’re just going to say they did it. It won’t actually involve doing anything.

    I’m going to nuke Moscow. Done.

    WEFshill202,

    He’s talking about tactical nukes though, not strategic ones. The exercises he’s talking about would be to practice using small scale nukes to secure battlefield “victories” (batshit insanity).

    echodot,

    The only way to practice that would be to withdraw forces from Ukraine. How’s that supposed to be a threat towards the UK.

    Although it is Russia so I suppose it’s entirely possible they’ll irradiate their own troops.

    avater,
    @avater@lemmy.world avatar

    It seems the Brits are doing something right, keep it going. Would love to see our chancellor doing the same instead of repeating the russian propaganda…

    thetreesaysbark,

    Probably just rishi trying to secure some right wing votes for the election later in the year.

    avater,
    @avater@lemmy.world avatar

    yes that could be true…but in the end I welcome all support for Ukraine.

    gravitas_deficiency,

    It genuinely baffles me how the conservative parties of more than a few western countries went from the hawkish party during the Cold War to Russian apologists today. The mental gymnastics are truly astounding.

    HopeOfTheGunblade,
    @HopeOfTheGunblade@kbin.social avatar

    Russia funds them, and in at least some cases has kompromat. See: NRA, 2016 us national party hacks.

    gravitas_deficiency,

    Oh, I’m aware. I’m mostly talking about how insane it is that the party base is enthusiastically eating this up.

    HopeOfTheGunblade,
    @HopeOfTheGunblade@kbin.social avatar

    Well, the base is definitely suffering from a tragic lack of gravitas. It helps to be aware that you desire to mistake not your own worldview, for a universal one. "Common sense" is never truly common, but derived from the knowledge and beliefs of the individual.

    gravitas_deficiency,

    I’m not though. If you’d have taken a poll of Republicans at literally any point before Trump launched his campaign, asking whether Russia was an ally or adversary, it would have yielded strong consensus on the latter.

    HopeOfTheGunblade,
    @HopeOfTheGunblade@kbin.social avatar

    So I think it's less relevant to consider Russia qua Russia here, and think of it more as a negative applause light that has had its valence flipped through the exercise of the massive media machine that the right has built to prevent another Nixon from ever having to resign in disgrace again.

    Churbleyimyam,

    What I like about this is that in order to appeal to right wing fascism the Tories must oppose the poster-boy for right wing fascism.

    TropicalDingdong,

    the Brits are doing something right

    bout fuckin time

    nogooduser,

    I’d say that we’re frequently doing something right. Unfortunately, we’re also frequently doing other things wrong.

    FlyingSquid,
    @FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

    On the one hand, National Health Service. On the other hand, ruthless colonialism…

    nogooduser,

    The Conservatives are working to “fix” the NHS so that it goes in the other column.

    ShittyBeatlesFCPres, (edited )

    We’re gonna need a community called “RussiaThreatens” like “ChinaWarns” where it just collects these stories. Yeah, we know.

    Gradually_Adjusting,
    @Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world avatar

    Authoritarian Copium

    Brunbrun6766,
    @Brunbrun6766@lemmy.world avatar

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China's_final_warning?wprov…

    Burn_The_Right,

    To add some icing, the phrase was originally Russian and was a household joke in Russia for decades. Russians (and Vlad Puta) know very well how unserious and comical numerous “final warnings” are.

    homesweethomeMrL,

    Are you threatening me?!

    Hmhm heh hm. Yeah. Hmhehe. Hm.

    CanadaPlus, (edited )

    “China’s final warning”

    I’d take it more seriously if the West actually became involved, but regardless of Frenchmen “shooting their mouth off” nobody’s sending troops to fight a nuclear power.

    Gradually_Adjusting,
    @Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world avatar

    Maybe double check to see if they actually still are one. All these decades of sabre rattling and corruption in the defense industry, wouldn’t it just take the cake if hardly any of their nuclear capabilities still worked?

    echodot,

    Yeah but how do you check?

    reev,

    Prod them with a stick?

    Gradually_Adjusting,
    @Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world avatar

    Same way they’re planning to test article 5 ig 🤷

    CanadaPlus, (edited )

    A 99% failure rate would still leave them capable of MAD. That they don’t have that capability is a dangerous pipe dream, which I see nowhere except Lemmy and Reddit comment sections.

    r00ty,
    @r00ty@kbin.life avatar

    I would say no-one is sending troops yet. I really dislike any country ruling it out entirely, better to just say nothing. If the conditions change, we (NATO/Europe) will need to act. Otherwise, our leaders may well be judged by the same yardstick as the leaders keen to appease a certain country in the late 30s.

    Maalus,

    Russia has already been “appeased” multiple times.

    r00ty,
    @r00ty@kbin.life avatar

    I would tend to agree. But I think we definitely need to define a line in the sand now, not declare there is no line. Which seems to me to be what such statements say about us.

    Maalus,

    The point is “the line in the sand” has been crossed multiple times without any reaction.

    r00ty,
    @r00ty@kbin.life avatar

    My point is, someone has to say where the line is (or indeed was). I don't think any western government wants to be on record saying where it is (or should have been). Some are saying there isn't a line regardless of what happens, and that's the problem I'm talking about. It's worse than not defining the line.

    Maalus,

    What good is it to define “a line” with no consequences or a symbolic gesture for crossing it?

    lost_faith,

    The LINE is attacking a NATO country, then Article 5 get enacted and we are all screwed

    CanadaPlus, (edited )

    Allow me to rephrase: We’re not going to involve our troops first. NATO territory is a total red line that would lead to direct conflict, and there’s been specific, limited consequences set for their use of various non-conventional weapons. All conventional weapons are now being given to Ukraine, to match the ones Russia is bringing to bear.

    Because of that, I don’t worry too much about appeasement of Russia specifically at this point. I do worry about appeasement policies in general, though. Specifically towards various factions within the West.

    bradorsomething,

    Salami tactics m.youtube.com/watch?v=yg-UqIIvang

    CanadaPlus, (edited )

    If that’s an argument against what I just said, it doesn’t really apply here. There’s a consequence for every Russian action (now, anyway) that exceeds any benefit it could get them.

    A few years ago, taking salami slices is exactly what they were doing, but they got greedy and now the West is somewhat awake.

    Wanderer,

    British special forces are suspected to have been in Ukraine from day one.

    They probably haven’t shot anyone but they are far more useful doing other things.

    CanadaPlus,

    I was wondering if that would get brought up. It’s sure ballsy on the UK’s part. The deniability is the thing that makes it different, though. Russia doesn’t have to respond to a few spies the same way as they would to an open confrontation. The reports also suggest it’s very small numbers of people.

    Aurenkin,

    You’re already getting your ass kicked by Ukraine, you’re not scaring anyone with threats anymore.

    EatATaco,

    Ukraine is faring fat better than one would have expected, but they’re not getting their asses kicked. The tide of the battle seems to be shifting in Russia’s favor due to Ukraine being depleted of troops.

    tal,
    @tal@lemmy.today avatar

    Russia on Monday threatened to strike British military facilities

    I’m going to go out on a limb and say that if the Kremlin isn’t happy with the current state of the war with Ukraine, that probably wouldn’t produce a situation more to their liking.

    fuckingkangaroos,

    “You better watch out!!! We’re getting our military crushed, and if you join in we’ll get our military even more crushed by you!”

    SlopppyEngineer,

    These days Russia mainly strikes with misinformation campaigns and hacking attacks. Sometimes they even sabotage underseas infrastructure.

    itsnotits,

    You’d* better watch out

    TachyonTele,

    Lol

    0110010001100010,
    @0110010001100010@lemmy.world avatar

    Why do the biggest assholes always have to rattle their sabers the most? Are they compensating for something?

    bluGill,

    They hope to scare enough people to get a change. don't let it work.

    ButtKiss,

    Because it worked to get them where they are… So they keep doing it. Ostensibly Germany’s not sending Taurus precisely because of this.

    AlteredStateBlob,
    @AlteredStateBlob@kbin.social avatar

    I have complained to the chancellor about that and will continue to do so. But they do provide Taurus to allies who in turn send their stock of older but similarly capable systems to Ukraine such as storm shadow.

    Still, it's silly and our weapons are only for defense against Russia anyway. We will only need Taurus ourselves if Ukraine loses. Might as well put them to use.

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