A senior Vladimir Putin ally warned that Europeans should “crap themselves with fear” as fears mount over World War III – and Russia has threatened to strike various parts of the UK in the past, as per various reports. Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia’s National Security Council, made the comments after at least 17 flights were grounded in Munich last week due to multiple drone sightings in nearby airspace.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Sunday that he believed Russia was behind the drone attacks. Mr Medvedev, former President and Prime Minister of Russia, speculated on many other sources who may have been behind the drones, but warned Europeans should feel the “danger of war”.
He wrote: “The causes of this panic around ‘Russian drones’ could be any of the listed reasons or a combination of them. [But] that’s not the main thing.
“The main thing is that the short-sighted Europeans should feel on their own skin what the danger of war is. So that they fear and tremble like stupid animals in a herd being driven to the slaughter. So that they crap themselves with fear.”
It comes after varying sources appeared to name 14 locations in the UK that could be targeted by Russia, spanning from Scotland to Plymouth.
The Financial Times mapped three suspected Russian targets in the UK after viewing leaked Russian military files from between 2008 and 2014. It said the files were detailed in a presentation to officers, which predated the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The report suggested there could be an unnamed target in Cumbria, possibly the Royal Navy’s submarine shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness.
It also listed a site in Edinburgh, suspected to be a shipyard in Rosyth where the Royal Navy aircraft carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, were built. An unnamed Hull factory was supposedly also in the firing line.
Although they were a decade old, the FT said experts still believed the files were relevant due to the state of the world.
A leading Russian supporter, Vladimir Solovyov, also claimed on Russian state television that Oxford and Cambridge should be targeted so the “British elite” and their universities can be destroyed.
In March 2024, intelligence sources also warned that Russia added two new targets to its UK strike list for long-range bombers, reported The Express.
Defence and Diplomatic Editor Marco Giannangeli reported that towns with historical connections to the Armed Forces, such as Aldershot, Colchester, and Portsmouth, were likely already on the list.
He added that locations, including Tidworth and Salisbury in Wiltshire, were likely.
Anton Gerashchenko, former Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, also posted a video to X in July 2024 warning that Russia was targeting key cities including London, Birmingham and Manchester.
He also stated that naval bases in Clyde, Scotland; Chatham Dockyard in Kent; and Plymouth would be the focal point of attacks.