Russia has demanded that Britain either reverse its ‘hostile line’ on Ukraine or face a direct attack on military targets. This escalatory rhetoric comes after Andy Burnham reportedly received intelligence that the UK faces an impending ‘direct attack’ from Russia over the UK’s continued support for Ukraine, in particular, the use of British-made drones to strike deep into Russia.
It is far too easy to pass this off as yet more bluff and sabre-rattling. Yes, Putin has form. The Russian dictator has had ‘red lines’ at almost every stage of his full-scale invasion. He warned Britain that supplying Kyiv with Challenger 2 tanks would mean ‘direct involvement’; nothing beyond rhetoric followed. The same thing happened when we supplied Storm Shadow missiles, and they were given authorisation to strike military targets deep inside Russia. But just because he’s bluffed before doesn’t mean we can sleep easy.
The chances of a ‘direct response’ from the Kremlin consisting of a missile or drone attack are slim. Still, this week we’ve seen three UK airports suffer a cyber attack that stole customer data. The Kremlin’s Yantar intelligence ship has repeatedly monitored our undersea data cables over the past year. We, therefore, have to ask: at what point do we, as a nation, step up and take our homeland defence strategy seriously?
