Russia Warns UK of ‘Response’, Cuts Gas to 2 NATO Nations

MOSCOW (Dispatches) -- Russia’s defense ministry warned of an immediate “proportional response” to the UK after it said it would be legitimate for Ukraine to strike targets on Russian soil.
The Russian ministry warned that its troops were ready to launch strikes at decision-making centers in Kyiv, where some western military advisers are known to be present.
“We would like to underline that London’s direct provocation of the Kyiv regime into such actions, if such actions are carried out, will immediately lead to our proportional response,” the statement by the ministry said.
“As we have warned, the Russian Armed Forces are in round-the-clock readiness to launch retaliatory strikes with high-precision long-range weapons at decision-making centers in Kyiv,” it added.
The statement added that it would not necessarily be a problem if some representatives of certain western countries were in Kyiv if Russian strikes were carried out.
Russia’s stern remarks were directed towards London after the UK’s armed forces minister James Heappey said it would be “entirely legitimate” to strike targets in Russia for disrupting the country’s logistics and supply lines.
Speaking to BBC Radio on Tuesday, Heappey said it would be acceptable for Kyiv to use western weapons to attack military targets on Russian soil.
“The question is, is it acceptable for our weapons to be used against legitimate Russian military targets by the Ukrainians?” Heappey asked.
“Firstly, it’s Ukrainians that take the targeting decision, not the people who manufacture or export the kit in the first place. And secondly, it is entirely legitimate to go after targets in the depth of your opponents to disrupt their logistics and supply lines.”
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday accused the UK of being involved in a proxy war against Moscow by supplying Ukraine with arms and “pouring oil on the fire” by providing ammunations.
Lavrov said the danger of a third world war was “serious and real” and that Moscow views weapons provided to Ukraine by the alliance as legitimate targets.
“NATO, in essence, is engaged in a war with Russia through a proxy, and is arming that proxy. War means war,” Lavrov said.
On Wednesday, Russian forces pushed deeper into eastern Ukraine and captured several villages in their offensive to fully control the two provinces of Donbas.
The Ukrainian defense ministry said that Russian forces had pushed Kyiv’s army out of Velyka Komyshuvakha and Zavody, in the north-eastern Kharkiv region, and gained control over Zarichne and Novotoshkivske in Donetsk.
The Kremlin said this month it was pulling its forces out from around Kyiv to focus on capturing the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in Donbas, which have been controlled by pro-Russia separatists since 2014.
The interior ministry of Moldova’s pro-Russia breakaway region of Transnistria, which borders western Ukraine, said on Wednesday that shots were fired overnight from Ukrainian territory towards a village housing a large Russian ammunition depot.
The ministry also said drones were observed over the village, and it claimed they too had been launched from Ukraine. Its statement came after a series of explosions in the unrecognized region that authorities there referred to as terrorist attacks.
Russia’s foreign ministry has refused to rule out Transnistria being drawn into the war, saying Moscow was “concerned” by the explosions targeting the state security ministry, a radio tower and military unit.
It was not clear who is behind the blasts in Transnistria but the attacks gave rise western accusations that Moldova could be Russia’s next target or that Moscow could try to use the breakwaway region as another launching point to attack Ukraine.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, claimed that Russian “special services” were working to “destabilize the situation in the [Transnistria] region, to threaten Moldova. They show that if Moldova supports Ukraine, there will be certain steps.”
Meanwhile, blasts were heard on Wednesday in three Russian provinces bordering Ukraine, reports said, and an ammunition depot near Staraya Nelidovka in Belgorod province caught fire. Russia earlier accused Ukraine of attacking a fuel depot in Belgorod but Kyiv has not confirmed responsibility for incidents reported on Russian territory.
Russia’s defense ministry said its Kalibr missiles had struck an arms depot in Ukraine’s southern-central Zaporizhzhia region

storing “foreign weapons and ammunition supplied to Ukrainian troops by the U.S. and European countries”.

The ministry said Russia’s air force destroyed 59 Ukrainian military targets overnight. Petro Andryushchenko, an official in Mariupol, said Russian forces hit the Azovstal steel plant there, where about 2,000 Ukrainian fighters and 1,000 civilians are still holed up, with 35 airstrikes over 24 hours.

Zelenskiy has been pleading for heavier firepower to push back the Russian advance in Donbas but western allies are wary of being drawn into an outright war with Russia. With Moscow’s potentially critical eastern offensive under way, however, Washington pledged on Tuesday to move “heaven and earth” to enable Ukraine to win.

Germany announced on Tuesday it would send self-propelled anti-aircraft guns to Ukraine, reversing its much-criticized cautious stance on heavy weapon supplies.

The UN refugee agency UNHCR has said it expects more than 8 million Ukrainians to eventually flee their country, with nearly 5.3 million having already left, and that $1.85 billion will be needed to host them in neighboring countries.

Natural Gas Cut to 2 NATO Nations

Russia cut off natural gas to NATO members Poland and Bulgaria on Wednesday and threatened to do the same to other countries, dramatically escalating its standoff with the West over the war in Ukraine. European leaders decried the move as “blackmail.”

A day after the U.S. and other Western allies vowed to speed more and heavier weapons to Ukraine, the Kremlin used its most essential export as leverage against two of Kyiv’s staunch backers. Gas prices in Europe shot up on the news.

The tactic could eventually force targeted nations to ration gas and deal another blow to economies suffering from rising prices. At the same time, it could deprive Russia of badly needed income to fund its war effort.

Poland has been a major gateway for the delivery of weapons to Ukraine and confirmed this week that it is sending the country tanks. Bulgaria, under a new liberal government that took office last fall, has cut many of its old ties to Moscow and supported sanctions against Russia. It has also hosted Western fighter jets at a new NATO outpost on Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast.

The cutoff and the Kremlin warning that other countries could be next sent shivers of worry through the 27-nation European Union.

Western leaders and analysts portrayed the move by Russia as a bid to divide the Western allies and undermine their unity in support of Ukraine.

State-controlled Russian giant Gazprom said it was shutting off the two countries because they refused to pay in Russian rubles, as President Vladimir Putin had demanded. A number of other gas-importing countries have also refused to do business in rubles.

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Russia Warns UK of ‘Response’, Cuts Gas to 2 NATO Nations