Russia on Monday threatened to strike British military facilities and said it would hold drills simulating the use of battlefield nuclear weapons amid sharply rising tensions over comments by senior Western officials about possibly deeper involvement in the war in Ukraine.
After summoning the British ambassador to the Foreign Ministry, Moscow warned that Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory with U.K.-supplied weapons could bring retaliatory strikes against British military facilities and equipment on Ukrainian soil or elsewhere.
The remarks came on the eve of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inauguration to a fifth term in office and in a week when Moscow on Thursday will celebrate Victory Day, its most important secular holiday, marking its defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.
Lmao fucking try it, Putin. Make our day.
Holy shit what the fuck is wrong with you basically begging for a war between two major powers? We all hate Putin, but fuck that would not be good for anyone.
It would be really bad for a small group of people and would save the lives of hundreds of thousands of others. Say Putin does strike Britain. A bunch of people die in the initial strike. Then Britain, America, Poland, Germany, Ukraine, France, Canada, and probably a handful of others all collectively turn the Kremlin into glass and dust in a retaliatory strike. China and North Korea both rattle their sabers about it but neither of them wants to throw down with the Allies 2.0 because it doesn’t matter who you are, going to outright war with a world cooperative force is a capital-letters Bad Idea.
Otherwise Putin continues to slowly grind his way across Eurasia for the next decade while every other country’s politicians hem and haw about who they want to help and how much. Meanwhile thousands of people die daily as the Russian meat wave slides its way down toward the central EU.
There’s a very good reason that Putin has been performing military ops in Ukraine and only vaguely threatening everyone else that got involved. He knows that if he manages to actually draw the ire of the full Allied military might the remaining lifespan of his army and capitol will be measured in minutes.
If this were just a straight up shooting war it would have been done and dusted two years ago. Instead it’s a political war, and that’s stopping a bunch of politicians from actually making a move on it. Nobody wants to be the guy that started World War 3, and Putin is leveraging that to enormous effect.
Lol
it would hold drills simulating the use of battlefield nuclear weapons
Oh no, not drills. If we’re not careful they’re going to pretend to use nukes, that’s very scary.
They did that because they needed a reason for their forces to be near the border (Of course it wouldn’t fool a concussed chipmunk, but that’s not relevant). This is why historically Russian military exercises often get up NATO’s nose, because Russia does this a lot, it claims " training exercises" as an excuse for its forces to be in NATO waters.
But simulating a nuclear strike doesn’t require forces to be in NATO territory or anywhere near the UK.
It’s not the exercises itself that’s the problem, it’s the fact that Russia often uses them as justification for moving forces around.
If Russia simulates a nuclear strike against London for example, how will anyone in London even notice. They’re just going to say they did it. It won’t actually involve doing anything.
I’m going to nuke Moscow. Done.
He’s talking about tactical nukes though, not strategic ones. The exercises he’s talking about would be to practice using small scale nukes to secure battlefield “victories” (batshit insanity).
“China’s final warning”
I’d take it more seriously if the West actually became involved, but regardless of Frenchmen “shooting their mouth off” nobody’s sending troops to fight a nuclear power.
I would say no-one is sending troops yet. I really dislike any country ruling it out entirely, better to just say nothing. If the conditions change, we (NATO/Europe) will need to act. Otherwise, our leaders may well be judged by the same yardstick as the leaders keen to appease a certain country in the late 30s.
I would tend to agree. But I think we definitely need to define a line in the sand now, not declare there is no line. Which seems to me to be what such statements say about us.
Allow me to rephrase: We’re not going to involve our troops first. NATO territory is a total red line that would lead to direct conflict, and there’s been specific, limited consequences set for their use of various non-conventional weapons. All conventional weapons are now being given to Ukraine, to match the ones Russia is bringing to bear.
Because of that, I don’t worry too much about appeasement of Russia specifically at this point. I do worry about appeasement policies in general, though. Specifically towards various factions within the West.
Salami tactics https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yg-UqIIvang
Maybe double check to see if they actually still are one. All these decades of sabre rattling and corruption in the defense industry, wouldn’t it just take the cake if hardly any of their nuclear capabilities still worked?
British special forces are suspected to have been in Ukraine from day one.
They probably haven’t shot anyone but they are far more useful doing other things.
I was wondering if that would get brought up. It’s sure ballsy on the UK’s part. The deniability is the thing that makes it different, though. Russia doesn’t have to respond to a few spies the same way as they would to an open confrontation. The reports also suggest it’s very small numbers of people.
There’s something weird in Putin’s hand… it’s super blurry… I think he’s shaking it really, really fast… hang on, I have a high-speed camera. Let’s see what it is.
Oh, well that makes sense. Pray, continue.
