Russia lashes out at UK, France over Ukraine missile technology transfer

Russian ⁠foreign ⁠ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova ⁠said on Thursday that Russia could strike British military targets inside and outside Ukraine ‌in response to Ukrainian strikes on Russia using British missiles.

Zakharova called on Britain to back off what she called London’s hostile ⁠stance on Ukraine, which she said ‌risked taking the conflict to an entirely new level.

She ‌had told the same Moscow ⁠news ⁠briefing earlier that Britain and France were “playing with ‌fire” by supplying sensitive missile technology to Ukraine.

Britain ‌announced on ‌Monday it would allow ‌Kyiv access to classified technology to ⁠start its own production of Storm Shadow ⁠long-range cruise missiles, capable of carrying out strikes deep within ‌Russia. France ‌has already given its assent to licence the technology for the European missile.

Also on Thursday, the ⁠Kremlin ⁠dismissed US media reports that Russia could attack a Nato member state and that the ‌purpose of US CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s visit to Moscow this week had been to warn Russia against such a move.

Asked ⁠to comment on the reports, Kremlin ‌spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “A lot of this kind of ‌scare-story material is being published right now. ⁠Of ⁠course, it has nothing to do ‌with reality and nothing to do with the ‌intentions ‌of the Russian Federation.”