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.
Russia has lost half a dozen ships to a nation with no navy. And they want to throw down with one as experienced as the UK? “Attacking the home of Storm Shadow missiles is a good thing” is the thought of an idiot.
They could deploy their only aircraft carrier, that’ll show ‘em.
Oh, wait, never mind.
“The ship has been out of service and in repairs since 2018. The repair process has been hampered by accidents, embezzlement of funds, and other setbacks. After the floating drydock PD-50 sank in Kola Bay (Murmansk) in an accident that killed one worker in October 2018, the ship was towed to Sevmorput Yard No 35. In another mishap in December 2019, a major fire killed at least one worker and injured ten others. In June 2022, the ship was transferred to a drydock at the 35th Ship Repair Plant in Murmansk, where it remained until February 2023. The current projection is that repairs will be completed and the ship will be transferred back to the Russian Navy sometime in 2024, however this may be pushed back to 2025 if issues arise during overhaul and testing”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_aircraft_carrier_Admiral_Kuznetsov
now, to be very upfront about this: I do NOT want to fuck around and find out, but…
it wouldn’t surprise me if Russia’s entire nuclear arsenal is in a similar state of repair.
Even if the warheads are working I would question everything else.
siphon out the jetfuel for their heaters.
Stripping the copper out and selling it for vodka money?
They have a lot of them, odds are at least some of them still work.
We’re gonna need a community called “RussiaThreatens” like “ChinaWarns” where it just collects these stories. Yeah, we know.
Authoritarian Copium
To add some icing, the phrase was originally Russian and was a household joke in Russia for decades. Russians (and Vlad Puta) know very well how unserious and comical numerous “final warnings” are.
Are you threatening me?!
Hmhm heh hm. Yeah. Hmhehe. Hm.
You’re already getting your ass kicked by Ukraine, you’re not scaring anyone with threats anymore.
Ukraine is faring fat better than one would have expected, but they’re not getting their asses kicked. The tide of the battle seems to be shifting in Russia’s favor due to Ukraine being depleted of troops.
It seems the Brits are doing something right, keep it going. Would love to see our chancellor doing the same instead of repeating the russian propaganda…
the Brits are doing something right
bout fuckin time
I’d say that we’re frequently doing something right. Unfortunately, we’re also frequently doing other things wrong.
On the one hand, National Health Service. On the other hand, ruthless colonialism…
The Conservatives are working to “fix” the NHS so that it goes in the other column.
Probably just rishi trying to secure some right wing votes for the election later in the year.
It genuinely baffles me how the conservative parties of more than a few western countries went from the hawkish party during the Cold War to Russian apologists today. The mental gymnastics are truly astounding.
yes that could be true…but in the end I welcome all support for Ukraine.
What I like about this is that in order to appeal to right wing fascism the Tories must oppose the poster-boy for right wing fascism.
Why do the biggest assholes always have to rattle their sabers the most? Are they compensating for something?
Because it worked to get them where they are… So they keep doing it. Ostensibly Germany’s not sending Taurus precisely because of this.
If Russia attacks the UK can Ukraine attack China and Iran?
Probably a bad idea but that’s what they’re saying isn’t it?
Edit: and given russias use of China and Iran weaponry, if it happens to be from them, the UK can attack them too now!
If Russia attacks the UK they’ve attacked NATO and all bets are off…
Edit: and given russias use of China and Iran weaponry
The US and Russia have historically been the world’s two largest arms dealers. You can begrudge China and Iran for getting a slice of the action, but I have to imagine pulling them directly into the conflict would not improve matters for any Ukrainian.
It wouldn’t, but Russia is basically saying that’s a perfectly valid reason to do it.
There’s one big difference.
China’s doing the proper capitalist thing and selling weapons onto the market.
The UK is doing the unforgivable socialist thing and just giving them away.
Ah gotcha. Definitely times to pull out the nukes for that unforgivable act then.
Or just bust up the payroll system for UK ground troops, as happened a few days ago
What Chinese missiles, bombs, and guns have the Russians used that the Ukrainians haven’t? Please cite a source.
A DJI drone available on Amazon/Alibaba is not a “weapon.” A Shahed is.
US assessment is that China is providing the majority of what Russia needs to make those weapons, which is critical to russias ability to maintain their offensive.
They’re using loopholes to bypass sanctions by posing as civilian gear.
Ukraine is also finding critical Chinese parts on captured gear that used to be from other countries honoring those sanctions.
“Our view is that one of the most gamechanging moves available to us at this time to support Ukraine is to persuade the PRC [People’s Republic of China] to stop helping Russia reconstitute its military industrial base,” the official said.
UK eyes Chinese drone parts for Ukraine
American drones are glitching and getting lost in Ukraine, giving way to a flood of Chinese drones
Ukraine continues to snap up Chinese DJI drones for its defense
And the Russian assessment would be that China is providing much of what’s keeping Ukraine’s defense alive.
Like they’ve been threatening for the last two years? They’re out of escalation options that are useful for them.
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.
are you winning vlad? are you?
coz doesnt look like that if you need to threat the world with nuclear weapons.
He didn’t threaten to use nukes. He threatened to run drills where his soldiers pretend to use nukes. Probably so that he can actually follow through on an ignored threat.
But that still doesn’t change the fact that any actual nuke use would result in an escalation regretted by both sides, even if it doesn’t result in an alpha strike.
Russia stop! Poland can only get so erect!
Aren’t they really just threatening to move them up in the queue?
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.
Because it’s a fucking bluff dude.
The UK hasn’t been a major power in like at least 2 decades. If you mean NATO then Russia isn’t really a major power in comparison to NATO. Not that it’s important, Russia isn’t stupid enough to pick a fight with NATO.
Come on then if you think you’re hard enough
We are millwall! Super millwall! We are millwall, from the den!
Send more Stormshadows!
For real though, attack the UK and you’re gonna have the USAF and RAF flying sorties over Moscow within a week
Russia sure talks a lot. They’ve already lost credibility as a major power. All they have left is “blow everything up”, including themselves.
