Russia expels U.K. diplomats; Putin warns against deep strikes with Western weapons
The Russian president issued his sternest warning to date about the use of Western weapons in Ukraine ahead of a meeting of British and U.S. leaders.
Russia on Friday accused six British diplomats of spying and announced it has stripped them of accreditation, ahead of a crucial White House meeting between President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who are expected to discuss whether to allow Ukraine to strike military targets deep inside Russia using some long-range Western weapons.
On the eve of the meeting, President Vladimir Putin also warned that if Ukraine fires Western missiles deep into Russia, it would mean that Russia was at war with NATO and would respond accordingly.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said that Britain’s Foreign Office was coordinating “the escalation of the political and military situation” in Ukraine to ensure Russia’s defeat in the war. It said the diplomats were “threatening the security of the Russian Federation.”
The British Foreign Office described the FSB’s accusations as “completely baseless” and said Russia revoked the diplomats’ accreditation last month in retaliation for earlier British action “in response to Russian state-directed activity across Europe” and in the United Kingdom. “We are unapologetic about protecting our national interests,” it said.
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Putin’s threat underscored Moscow’s unease about the impact that a decision allowing Ukraine to target Russia using some long-range weapons might have on the strategic balance in the war.
“The issue is not whether to allow the Ukrainian regime to make strikes on Russia or not. The issue is to decide whether the NATO states are directly involved in the military conflict or not,” Putin said.
“If this decision is made, it will mean nothing other than the direct involvement of NATO states, European states, in the war in Ukraine,” Putin said in a television interview late Thursday.
Such a move would change “the very nature of the conflict,” he said. “This will mean that all NATO states, the United States, the European countries are fighting with Russia. And if so, then given the change in the very essence of this conflict, we will make corresponding decisions based on the threats that will be created for us.”
In response to Putin’s remarks, Starmer told British reporters that Russia’s invasion was illegal and that Ukraine has a right to defend itself.
“We don’t seek any conflict with Russia. That’s not our intention in the slightest. But they started this conflict, and Ukraine’s got a right to self-defense,” he said.
Ukraine has repeatedly dismissed such threats from Russia, maintaining that Putin never follows through. On Friday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk also recommended not getting too worried over the Russian leader’s remarks.
“I would not attach excessive importance to the latest statements from President Putin,” Tusk told a news conference. “They rather show the difficult situation the Russians have on the front.”
Throughout the war, Kremlin and senior Russian officials have spelled out a series of red lines, for example the supply of F-16 warplanes to Kyiv or any invasion of Russian territory, and these have been crossed without major repercussions.
In addition, until recently Kremlin officials seemed to be playing down the matter, stating that the decision to lift restrictions on using Western weapons for long-range strikes into Russia had already been made.
But on Friday, speaking after the responses from Starmer and Tusk, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov sought to reinforce the gravity of Putin’s warning in comments to journalists during a regular conference call.
“The statement that Putin made yesterday is very important,” he said. “It is extremely clear, unambiguous and does not allow for any double readings. We have no doubt that this statement has reached its addressees.”
The Russian daily Kommersant also suggested that this time around, Putin is serious. In an article headlined, “Vladimir Putin drew his red line,” Kommersant reported that such strikes would be classified as NATO strikes against Russia.
“Previously, Russian officials, including Vladimir Putin himself, have repeatedly said that NATO countries are directly or indirectly involved in the confrontation between Russia and Ukraine, but this is the first time this topic has been raised so harshly and unequivocally,” Kommersant reported.
The war against Ukraine, planned as a short, sharp operation, has instead turned into a long, bloody war of attrition, which British intelligence recently estimated has cost Russia more than 610,000 soldiers killed or wounded in action.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other officials have been pressing Washington for months to lift the restrictions against using Western missiles to target military sites such as airfields where Moscow bases the planes that have launched devastating strikes knocking out much of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure as well as killing civilians.
“Anyone who simply looks at the map and sees where Russia is launching strikes, where it is preparing forces and holding reserves, where its military facilities are located, and what logistics it uses — anyone who sees all of this clearly understands why Ukraine needs long-range capabilities,” he posted on Telegram.
At a conference Friday, Zelensky also said that he would soon brief Biden on his victory plan to end to war and bring about a “reliable peace.”
Biden was asked Tuesday whether the United States was ready to lift the restrictions. “We are working that out right now,” he said.
A British government statement ahead of Friday’s White House meeting accused Russia of escalating the war, notably by importing Iranian ballistic missiles for use against Ukraine, calling it “a significant escalation … bolstering Putin’s capability to continue his illegal war.”
The FSB said expelling the six diplomats is a first step in response to “the numerous unfriendly steps taken by London.” It said it found “signs of spying and sabotage” by the six British diplomats from the political department of the Moscow embassy.
An FSB officer who appeared on state television on Friday morning said British diplomats being expelled had met with journalists from Novaya Gazeta newspaper and from the rights group Memorial.
Memorial, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has, like hundreds of media, civil society organizations, journalists and activists, been declared a “foreign agent” by Russian authorities.
“It’s a classical British spy. It’s fun watching him, but it can’t be tolerated any further,” the FSB officer said.
“We got sick and tired of tolerating this circus as they went jogging … across Moscow and through urban forests, their one-day visits to neighboring towns for the purpose of sitting on a bench for several hours in the frost, or multiple changes of public transport and taxis to escape from security services in order to visit some gathering of foreign-agent NGOs that lobby for migrants’ interests,” he said.
State television broadcast the names and photographs of the accused diplomats