Russia Threatens Strikes on UK and France Over Missile Tech as Poland Says It's 'Preparing for War'

Since CIA Director John Ratcliffe's Moscow meeting with Russian intelligence chief Sergei Naryshkin and Russia's subsequent ICBM test, the Kremlin has widened its threats to include Britain and France directly.

On Aug. 27, Russia's Foreign Ministry posted on X that London and Paris are "trying to dodge responsibility for deep strikes into Russia by shifting the assembly role to Ukraine," according to the Epoch Times. The post carried an image of the Ukrainian trident superimposed over London's Tower Bridge and the Eiffel Tower.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters in Moscow that same day the consequences would be "inevitable" and "catastrophic" unless the UK reverses course, warning that "British military installations and equipment in Ukraine and beyond its borders could be targeted."

What triggered it

The threats followed British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Aug. 24 announcement in Kyiv that the UK will share classified technical information so Ukraine can build its own long-range cruise missiles, based on the Storm Shadow and French SCALP systems, which have a range over 250 kilometers, according to the Epoch Times.

London's position, per the Epoch Times' reporting on official comment, is that this isn't an escalation at all, because Britain and France have already been supplying Ukraine with the same missiles since 2023. Moscow's counter is that manufacturing the weapons on Ukrainian soil changes the equation. The two sides disagree over what constitutes escalation, and each reads the same facts differently.

A Kremlin-aligned voice raises the stakes further

Former Russian deputy foreign minister Andrei Fedorov, now a regular Russian television commentator, told the BBC's Newsnight program that Vladimir Putin faces "very serious political and public pressure" to retaliate against Britain, according to Breitbart's account of the interview. Fedorov said any response would likely come from actors with "plausible deniability" rather than official Russian forces, singling out British arms factories producing drones and missiles for Ukraine as targets for what he called "semi-military" action or hacking.

Fedorov is a commentator, not a government spokesman, and his remarks are his own characterization of internal Kremlin pressure. No Russian official has confirmed any such plan, and Peskov's own public comments this week focused on other matters.

Poland says it's bracing for the worst

Separately, Polish Deputy Defense Minister Cezary Tomczyk told Super Express in an interview published Aug. 17 that Poland is "preparing for war, hoping that it never happens," according to Fox News. The Polish Embassy in Washington told Fox News Digital the accelerated preparations are meant to deter aggression, not signal that conflict is inevitable, and pointed to Poland's defense spending nearing 5% of GDP.

A European diplomat, speaking to Fox News on condition of anonymity, said Russia has shown "a pattern of escalating pressure on multiple fronts," citing disinformation, cyberattacks, sabotage and repeated tests of Polish air defenses. The diplomat added the concern isn't hostility toward ordinary Russians but toward what they called Moscow's "imperialists."

Mobilization warning and mixed U.S. signals

CBC reported that Russia's economy is straining under what intelligence briefs describe as 1.4 million casualties, and that Ukrainian intelligence officials believe Putin will soon order a mass mobilization of 600,000 additional troops to overwhelm Ukraine's stretched defenses. That figure comes from intelligence assessments and Ukrainian officials cited by CBC, not a confirmed Russian announcement.

Adding to the uncertainty, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko traveled to Russia after ordering a snap combat-readiness inspection of his own forces, according to Kyiv Post, which cited TVP World news director Adam Jasser describing Belarus as a potential staging ground for further escalation.

At the same time, Kyiv Post reported that U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby was in Brussels discussing a Pentagon review that could reshape the roughly 80,000-strong American troop presence in Europe. Jasser called this a contradiction: Washington sending a deterrent signal via Ratcliffe's Moscow visit while simultaneously weighing cuts to its own European footprint. President Trump has downplayed the Moscow trip as "semi-routine," telling radio host Glenn Beck it wasn't meant to warn Putin against testing NATO. Jasser's reading and Trump's own account of the trip's purpose remain in direct conflict, and neither side has offered documentary proof of what was actually said in that meeting.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said separately that peace talks are on a "deep pause" while Russian forces press their offensive in eastern Ukraine, according to Kyiv Post. Whether Moscow's threats against UK and French targets translate into actual sabotage, cyberattacks, or remain rhetoric aimed at deterring further Western weapons transfers is the open question NATO capitals are now working from.