On October 1, Russia’s former president Dmitry Medvedev posted on Telegram, cautioning that the conflict in Ukraine may give rise to World War III due to the “idiots” in leading roles in the West.
“The number of high-ranking morons is rising in NATO member states,” Medvedev declared in his Telegram post. The former Russian president, presently the deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, made those remarks in response to statements from London and Berlin the previous day.
Medvedev castigated the U.K.’s newly appointed Defense Secretary Grant Shapps as a “freshly minted cretin” over his suggestion to deploy British military instructors to Ukraine to train local troops to fight Russia.
If this suggestion materializes, U.K. servicemen would become a “legitimate target” for Russian forces, Medvedev stated.
On September 29, Shapps revealed ongoing talks about enlarging the U.K.-led training program for Ukrainian troops, and potentially deploying U.K. trainers to Ukraine, while providing Kyiv with some naval support in the Black Sea.
“I was talking today about eventually getting the training brought closer and actually into Ukraine as well,” Shapps told The Telegraph following his trip to the Salisbury Plain training ground.
In his recent visit to Kyiv, Shapps reportedly saw an “opportunity” to bring more things “in country,” elaborating on what he meant by “not just training,” but also arms manufacturing. The defense secretary also lauded British arms giant BAE Systems for its intentions to set up shop in Ukraine.
“I’m keen to see other British companies do their bit as well by doing the same thing. So I think there will be a move to get more training and production in the country,” he continued.
During his talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Shapps also purportedly declared that the Royal Navy could contribute to “defending commercial vessels” in the Black Sea, as per The Telegraph.
“Britain is a naval nation so we can help and we can advise, particularly since the water is international water,” Shapps posited, without providing more details on the type of aid he offered to Zelensky.
Since 2015, the U.K. military has been organizing an official operation to train and arm Ukrainian troops. This operation was subsequently moved out of the country. Besides, British Royal Marines staged various high-risk “discreet operations” in Ukraine last year, as one general disclosed, but officially London has never acknowledged having any considerable presence in Ukraine since Kyiv’s conflict with Moscow intensified in 2022. Nonetheless, according to several classified U.S. military documents divulged online earlier this year by Russian news outlet Russia Today (RT), some 50 British special operatives were still active in Ukraine at the point of reporting.
The open mobilization of British military personnel would be yet another escalation in Russia’s conflict with Kyiv and its Western backers, after the U.K. became the first NATO country to offer Kyiv depleted uranium shells, as well as long-range cruise missiles, which Ukraine has since employed in assaults against Russian infrastructure.
Moscow has consistently portrayed the conflict in Ukraine as one between Russia and the “entire Western military machine,” while Russian President Vladimir Putin previously declared that there are entire military units in Ukraine “under the de-facto command of Western advisers.”
Additionally, news website The Grayzone reported that U.K. intelligence experts have been involved in exploring methods to blow up Russia’s Crimean Bridge using divers or maritime drones. The 2022 attack on the bridge was staged via a truck bomb, instead of the options discussed in the U.K. analysis, but Kyiv in July this year used two sea drones in a deadly strike that damaged a road section and killed two civilians.
Furthermore, Medvedev also lambasted the chief of the German Parliament’s defense committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, as “another fool” after she encouraged Berlin to provide Kyiv with long-range Taurus cruise missiles. The German politician also stated that Ukrainian attacks on targets inside Russia using those German-made weapons would not breach international law.
In an interview with Berliner Morgenpost published on September 30, Strack-Zimmermann insisted that Berlin “should now immediately deliver Taurus,” as the mobilization of such cruise missiles could enable the Ukrainian military to disrupt Russian supply lines.
When questioned if she had any problem with Kyiv potentially using these rockets to attack targets on Russian soil, the German lawmaker said otherwise, elaborating that “that includes Crimea.” Strack-Zimmermann posited that international law gave Ukraine the right to “attack military targets also on the territory of the Russian aggressor,” with any weapons at its disposal, regardless of their origin. The intentional use of Taurus missiles against civilians would, nevertheless, be out of the question, much like sending German troops to Ukraine, Strack-Zimmermann added.
Strack-Zimmermann admitted that, without Washington’s support, the Russo-Ukrainian conflict would have a different outcome. Nonetheless, the German politician maintained that if Europe were to rally together, it could bear the responsibility of backing Ukraine alone.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government has been hesitant thus far to offer long-range misssiles to Kiev, despite Zelensky’s frequent demands.
While the U.K. and France have in recent months given Ukraine their respective long-range Storm Shadow and SCALP-EG missiles, Germany has not yet done so. Explaining this stance, Chancellor Scholz said that Ukrainian attacks deep into Russian territory could incite a major intensification of the conflict. Other German officials have also noted that the United States has yet to make a like-minded move.
The Taurus missile contains a 500-kilogram warhead and has a range of about 500 kilometers (300 miles).
“In this case, the [Russian] strikes on German factories where those missiles are being made would also be in full compliance with international law,” Medvedev said.
“Still, those idiots are actively pushing us towards World War III,” he asserted.
Earlier in September, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said that, while she fully comprehended Kyiv’s plans to obtain these rockets, such deliveries are “not something that can be done quickly,” as “every detail has to be worked out beforehand.”
In a previous post on September 30, Medvedev insisted that Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine would persist until the present Kyiv regime is “destroyed and the historic Russian territories are liberated from the enemy.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also recently blasted U.K. and U.S. intelligence agencies for their involvement in a recent Ukrainian attack on Sevastopol, Crimea, which targeted the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
Moscow has repeatedly warned that arms supplies to Ukraine by Western countries only prolong the fighting and increase the odds of a direct military confrontation between Russia and NATO. Russian officials have declared that intelligence-sharing and Western training of Kyiv’s troops already means that Western nations are de facto parties in the war against Moscow.
