Russia says will strike British targets if UK weapons used to hit its territory
reuters.com
reuters.com
This is precisely the same concept that Israel uses to strike four other sovereign countries (in addition targeting diplomatic and civilian structures) without declaring war, albeit, nobody is really striking Israel the way that UK/US is planning for Russia. Israel's military doctrine in that case is total all out nuclear war (check it).
US has been fighting proxy wars just as much if not more as the other guy. They bombed countries for less than someone striking their territory. Even destroyed several countries which had nothing to do with it.
So, what I do want to know, how is this solving anything, and who is there to benefit from this strategy (of total escalation)?
Finland or others will have something to say about it if they take any short route. But the long routes or high routes are very limited to mainly ICBMs. Not even intermediate ranges.
I legit don't see them doing this, making the threat hollow at best.
It would be entertaining if Milei stirs up Falklands dispute and Russia arms him with hypersonic anti-ship missiles. The French betrayed Argentina by sharing Exocet disabling codes with the British. Russians won't.
OTOH, if history is any guide, contracts may not be worth their paper if survival is at stake. It is an open question if the US or the French will risk losing half of their population and most of their cities over UK.
But it's not the real reason, of course.
As evidenced by Putin's countless bombastic speeches on the topic (and the simple vacuousness of the claimed NATO threat).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Karaganov#Karaganov_Doc...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Russian_chauvinism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All-Russian_nation
When Putin speaks of "The Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians" -- this is what he's alluding to.