Russia denounces West over drone strike on Moscow

 

A day after the first military strike to hit civilian areas in Moscow, Kremlin officials jumped on the refusal of Ukraine’s allies to condemn the attack as proof that Russia’s real war was with the West.

None of Ukraine’s allies went so far as to endorse the drone attack, but Britain’s foreign secretary said that Kyiv had “the right to project force beyond its borders.” The U.S. response also stopped short of criticizing the drone strike, which Ukrainian officials have said they were not “directly involved” in.

Dmitri Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia’s national security council and a former president, said Britain “de facto is leading an undeclared war against Russia” by providing Ukraine with military support. He argued that now any British official “can be considered as a legitimate military target.”

Russia has repeatedly hit civilian areas of Ukraine during the war, though it has denied targeting nonmilitary sites. In recent weeks it has turned up the barrage of missiles and attack drones aimed at Kyiv, the capital. Thousands of Ukrainian civilians, including children, have been killed in Russian airstrikes and artillery bombardments, U.N. officials say.