We will target your weapons convoys, Russia warns Britain
RUSSIA has delivered a chilling threat to Britain and its Nato allies that further shipments of weapons to Ukraine will be seen as ‘legitimate targets’.
Deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said Russia had ‘warned the US that pumping weapons from a number of countries it orchestrates isn’t just a dangerous move, it’s an action that makes those convoys legitimate targets’.
His comments last night prompted fears that Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine could spiral into a much wider war.
The UK, along with the US and Germany, has been hurriedly shipping thousands of anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles to help Ukraine repel Russia’s invasion.
Britain has already given more than 3,600 NLAW short-range antitank weapons and is also planning to supply a small consignment of Javelin anti-tank weapons as well as laser-guided Starstreak antiaircraft missiles. Small arms, body armour and medical supplies have also been sent.
With a range of just over four miles, Starstreak missiles are difficult to jam and will help Ukrainian forces shoot down Russian warplanes at night.
Ryabkov’s warning came after US President Joe Biden intervened to stop a shipment of Polish MiG fighter jets going to Kyiv, fearing the move could lead to World War Three. But experts last night said the Russian diplomat’s threats were unlikely to stop Britain making further arms deliveries.
Professor Michael Clarke, former director-general of the Royal United Services Institute thinktank, said: ‘The thing about Putin is he is trying to scare the West. He first did it with the nuclear threat and then the radiation threat and now he is threatening arms supplies. But I don’t think this will change Nato’s course and we will carry on what we are doing.
‘If he attacks, say British, personnel on the Polish side of the border, then this is an Article 5 moment for Nato – an attack on one is an attack on all – and I am sure Nato would provide an armed response. Putin is becoming more unpredictable as he is becoming more desperate, but I don’t think he will target Nato territory.’
It is understood that British arms are flown into countries that neighbour Ukraine and then transported by land before being handed over to Ukrainian forces at the border. British and other Nato personnel do not enter Ukrainian territory.
Ben Barry, a retired brigadier and an expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said that Nato is not breaking the law by supplying arms to the Ukrainians. He added: ‘If he decides to attack an arms convoy heading to Ukraine on the Polish side of the border, then we are in a grey area, and certainly it is an attack on Poland.’
Eight years ago Russian spies were suspected of blowing up an arms depot in the Czech Republic, a member of Nato. Anatoliy Chepiga and Alexander Mishkin, the two alleged Russian intelligence operatives suspected of carrying out the 2018 Salisbury poisonings, were linked to the blast.
Richard Barrons, former head of Joint Forces Command, said: ‘When it comes to attacking arms supply in Nato countries, Putin has form in this, as the attack on the Czech arms depot shows, which was done with spies, and had plausible deniability.’
Ryabkov also denounced the US sanctions against Moscow as an ‘unprecedented attempt to deal a serious blow to various sectors of the Russian economy’.
‘I don’t think this will change Nato’s course’