statement by the British Minister of Defense, Russia’s reaction, details: Politics: World: Lenta.ru

British Defense Minister John Healey after talks with colleagues from Germany, Italy, Poland and France stated about the transition of the Ukrainian conflict to a critical phase, and also announced joint work to strengthen NATO’s eastern flank.

Healy called on NATO states to strengthen their own defenses. According to him, the countries of the North Atlantic Alliance are also working together to strengthen cooperation in the development of air defense systems and long-range missiles. In addition, Healy spoke about NATO’s work to revitalize joint military-industrial enterprise programs. He also noted that “global threats are intensifying.”

In addition, Healy stated that discussed with the head of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Rustem Umerov doubling aid to Kyiv. According to him, defense ministers consider it necessary to increase defense spending.

Russia agreed with Britain’s opinion about the critical phase of the conflict in Ukraine

Member of the State Duma Committee on Defense Andrei Kolesnik in a conversation with Lenta.ru statedthat the Ukrainian conflict has long entered a critical phase and the actions of Great Britain also contributed to this.

“The conflict is truly at a critical phase. Already on the verge. It has long entered a critical phase thanks to the actions of the same Great Britain since the Istanbul negotiations, when [тогдашний премьер-министр Великобритании] Boris Johnson derailed peace talks. And now they were surprised that the conflict had reached a critical phase,” Kolesnik said.

At the same time, he drew attention to the fact that strengthening one’s own defense in NATO countries, which Healy spoke about, would take more than one year. According to Kolesnik, this should have been dealt with earlier and not brought the conflict to a critical phase.

“They were strengthening Ukraine, but now they got scared and let’s strengthen the defense,” he concluded.

UK supplied Ukraine with dozens of Storm Shadow missiles

A few weeks ago, the UK for the first time since Prime Minister Keir Starmer came to power put Ukraine has dozens of Storm Shadow cruise missiles. The agency reported this Bloomberg with reference to sources.

“The British government recently supplied Ukraine with several dozen more Storm Shadow cruise missiles. This is the first [случай поставки] under Prime Minister Keir Starmer,” the article says.

It is also noted that these deliveries were not publicly announced. They were sent to Kyiv after Ukraine’s supply of long-range shells was depleted, the authors of the article clarified. The exact number of missiles and the date of their arrival in Ukraine have not been specified.

Along with this, British Foreign Secretary David Lammy statedthat Great Britain is not going to send its military to Ukraine.

“We have trained tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers across the English Channel and will continue to do so. But we will not send British soldiers to Ukraine,” he noted.

The Kremlin did not rule out that Britain was the first to allow the Ukrainian Armed Forces to strike deep into Russia

Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov did not rule out that Great Britain would be the first allowed The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) will push deep into Russian territory with the help of long-range weapons transferred to Kyiv.

The British side did not hide that it considers it possible to use their weapons in any way, the Kremlin representative noted.

“Therefore, if we talk about some kind of act of permission for the Kyiv regime, then I think that the British could actually be the first here. This cannot be ruled out,” Peskov emphasized.

John Healy earlier avoided answering to the question about the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ strikes deep into Russian territory.