Kremlin adviser Andrei Fedorov warned on February 11 that UK factories producing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for export to Ukraine could become targets of attacks from “unidentified sources,” following London's agreement to share long-range missile blueprints with Kyiv.
Speaking to the BBC, Fedorov, a former Russian deputy foreign minister, said he “cannot 100 percent rule out” possible “semi-military” actions against Britain, as UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham was visiting Ukraine.
During his first foreign trip to Kyiv on February 10, Burnham agreed to share missile blueprints with Ukraine so it could produce French-British designed long-range missile UAVs domestically. According to the Russian adviser, Moscow regards this sharing as evidence of Britain's “direct military involvement” in the Russia-Ukraine war.
Fedorov said: “Sooner or later, there may be not only verbal reactions but also tangible reactions from Russia towards Britain.” When asked for details, he explained: “There is much discussion about how it will happen—it could be technical responses, possibly hacker attacks from an unidentified source, certainly not from an official level.”
He added: “There could be various political steps, and I cannot completely rule out that there may be some semi-military actions. For example, something could happen to businesses, to factories producing UAVs for Ukraine, and so on.”
Echoing that stance, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated on February 10 that Britain is “involved in this war” by providing missile support, which is “adding fuel to the fire.”
In response, Prime Minister Burnham asked reporters in Kyiv who had ignited the fire in the first place. Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Britain has agreed to declassify blueprints for the UK-built components of the Scalp missile, a French-made version of the Storm Shadow—a weapon already used to strike targets inside Russian territory.
The Scalp missile can hit heavily protected targets such as bunkers, a distinction from Ukraine's existing missiles. The missile has a range of approximately 240 kilometers.
Over the past year, Ukraine has significantly boosted production of low-cost UAVs, enabling it to strike more economic and military targets inside Russia.
