Russia Tells U.K., We Will Hit Your Military Facilities in Ukraine ‘and Beyond’
May 8—Russia’s Foreign Ministry May 6 summoned U.K. Ambassador Nigel Casey “to be delivered a strong protest against the recent statement by British Foreign Secretary David Cameron in an interview with the Reuters news agency regarding Ukraine’s right to strike Russian territory using British weapons.” Casey was told “The Ministry firmly pointed out to Ambassador Casey that Cameron’s hostile outburst directly contradicts the British side’s earlier assurances during the transfer of long-range cruise missiles to the Kiev regime that they would under no circumstances be used to strike Russia’s territory. By doing so, the head of the Foreign Office disavowed this position and admitted his country was a de facto party to the conflict.” Of note, Casey “was warned that any U.K. military facilities and equipment on Ukrainian territory and beyond could be hit as a response to Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory with British weapons.”
The Foreign Ministry concluded: “The ambassador was urged to consider the inevitable disastrous repercussions of such hostile steps by London and to urgently refute in the strongest and most unequivocal manner the bellicose provocative statements by the head of the Foreign Office.”
Moreover, a Foreign Ministry release stated:
“Due to the French leadership’s increasingly bellicose statements and incoming information about France’s growing involvement in the conflict around Ukraine, on May 6, French Ambassador to Russia Pierre Levy was summoned to the Foreign Ministry,” referring to President Emmanuel Macron pushing the idea of sending Western troops into Ukraine, and including the recent, reckless idea of making statements without clarifications just to keep Russia guessing.
“The Russian side gave its fundamental assessments of Paris’s destructive and provocative line, leading to further escalation of the conflict. It was emphasized that the attempts of the French authorities to create some strategic uncertainty for Russia with their irresponsible statements about a possible dispatch of Western military contingents to Ukraine are doomed to failure. The goals and objectives of the special military operation will be achieved."
As RT reported, “Earlier in the day, the Russian Defense Ministry announced an exercise to test the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons. President Vladimir Putin ordered the drills after ‘provocative statements and threats’ by Western officials, the military said.” EIR Daily Alert reported the Defense Ministry announcement at length.
The Foreign Ministry released a third statement on “Russian Armed Forces’ Exercises Held To Practice for the Use of Non-Strategic Nuclear Weapons,” concluding: “We hope that these drills will cool the hot heads in Western capitals, open their eyes to the potential catastrophic consequences of the strategic risks they are generating, and stop them from supporting the Kiev regime’s terrorist attacks and from becoming involved in a direct military confrontation with Russia.”
Russia’s Ambassador to U.S.: Our Nuclear Drills Mean We Are on to You
May 8—Russia’s Ambassador to the U.S. Anatoly Antonov, spoke to the press May 7, to reiterate for the United States the explicit connection between Russia’s decision, yesterday, to conduct tactical nuclear weapons drills and the “shameless and aggressive” policies of the “Collective West.” In response to Newsweek, Ambassador Antonov addressed the ongoing security threats created for Russia, with the U.S. and its allies constantly beefing up supplies of increasingly deadly weapons to Ukraine, which are more and more aimed at attacking Russian territory and “designed to kill Russian people and carry out attacks on our territory. Step by step, they abandon their own previously declared ‘self-limitations’ in the hybrid war unleashed against us. Roughly speaking, they are trying to ‘simmer’ our country.” This last is an apparent reference to Chatham House’s recommendation to the trick of boiling a frog by raising the temperature incrementally, step by step, as the means to treat Russia.
Asked by media about National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby’s accusation May 6 that Russia was carrying out “reckless and irresponsible” nuclear “saber-rattling,” Antonov reiterated that, “We are not a threat to anyone. However, the deranged strategists in Washington and their satellites in Europe must understand that in their stakes, Russia will use all means to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity. No game of one-sided escalation in the West will succeed.”
