Russia is suing West over drone attack on Moscow
A day after a drone strike on Moscow, Kremlin officials responded to Ukrainian allies’ refusal to denounce the attack as evidence that Russia’s real war was with the West.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitri S. Peskov said Russia “would have preferred to hear at least some words of condemnation” from Western capitals.
“We will think calmly and deliberately about how to deal with this,” he said.
While none of Ukraine’s allies went so far as to condone the drone strike, Britain’s foreign secretary said on Tuesday that Kiev “had the right to project violence beyond its borders”.
The US response was more circumspect, but it stopped short of criticizing the first military strike against civilian areas in the Russian capital since the start of the war. Ukrainian officials have said they were not “directly involved” in the drone strike.
From the start of the conflict, Russia has portrayed the invasion of Ukraine as a defensive war provoked by the West, and on Wednesday went on the offensive.
Dmitri A. Medvedev, Deputy Head of the Russian National Security Council and former President, said Britain “is leading a de facto undeclared war against Russia” by providing military aid to Ukraine, calling it “our eternal enemy”.
Known since the beginning of the war for taking extreme positions, Mr Medvedev argued that now any British official “could be considered a legitimate military target”.
Russian Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov called the US refusal to condemn the attack “an encouragement to Ukrainian terrorists,” his embassy said on the Telegram messaging app.
Russia has repeatedly hit civilian areas of Ukraine over the course of the war, though it has denied targeting non-military locations. And in recent weeks, the barrage of missiles and drones aimed at Kiev, the capital, has increased. Thousands of Ukrainian civilians, including children, have been killed in Russian airstrikes and artillery bombardments, UN officials say.
While Tuesday’s drone attack was unusual, it was not the first on Russian soil since the start of the war. Drones have hit military airbases deep in Russia, as well as an oil installation near an airport in Kursk province. And this month, drones exploded over the Kremlin.
The raids continued on Wednesday, when Ukrainian drones attacked two oil refineries in the Krasnodar region, according to Russian authorities. They also said four people were injured by shelling in the Belgorod border area.
Russia has long accused the West of waging a proxy war against it. Those claims grew louder this month when a group of Ukraine-based Russian paramilitaries staged a multi-day raid on the Russian border region of Belgorod — apparently using US armored vehicles.
A New York Times analysis found that at least three of what appeared to be US MRAPs were part of the attack. A leader of one of the groups claimed that the weapons had not been supplied by the Ukrainian army.
Russian officials have said that NATO’s decision to send weapons, which have become increasingly sophisticated over the course of the war, carries the risk of direct confrontation and possible nuclear war.
On Tuesday, President Vladimir V. Putin also made one oblique reference to this threat, calling the drone strike on Moscow an attempt “to create a reaction response from Russia”. He accused unspecified troops of sabotaging a Russian-occupied Ukrainian nuclear power plant or using “some kind of dirty bomb related to the nuclear industry”.
While Western governments initially focused their military support to Ukraine on strengthening its defenses, the desire to end the war more quickly has led over time to increased deliveries of offensive weapons to Kiev.
Tensions between Moscow and Western capitals have worsened since the invasion, as have the economic sanctions imposed on Russia as punishment.
French President Emmanuel Macron said at a security conference in Slovakia on Wednesday that Western allies must give Ukraine “tangible and credible” security guarantees in its fight against Russia.
“If we want a credible, lasting peace, if we want to hold our own against Russia, if we want to be credible with the Ukrainians, then we must give Ukraine the means to prevent any new aggression and to include Ukraine in any new security architecture. ‘ he said in it a speech.
Mr Macron was criticized early in the war for insisting on not antagonizing Russia, but his approach to Mr Putin has hardened. He also expressed regret that France and other Western European countries had not heeded warnings from countries on the eastern side of the European Union about Russian belligerence.
Germany said on Wednesday it had ordered four of the country’s five Russian consulates to close after Moscow capped the number of German diplomatic staff in Russia, the latest in an escalating diplomatic dispute between the two countries.
The Russian foreign ministry was told to close consulates in Germany immediately and to complete by the end of the year, said Christofer Burger, a spokesman for the German foreign ministry.
One Russian consulate and the Russian embassy in Berlin may remain open.
In Sweden, US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken met with European officials on Wednesday to discuss trade and technology issues. crack down on exports that could help Russia.
On Thursday, Mr Blinken will meet NATO foreign ministers to discuss the alliance summit scheduled for July, the war in Ukraine and prospects for Swedish membership in the alliance.
Christopher F. Schuetze, Michael Crowley And Aureline Breeden reporting contributed.