The Russian Ministry of Defense announced on April 17 that the leadership of several European countries, due to growing losses and a shortage of personnel in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, has decided to increase the production and delivery of drones for strikes on Russia.

A significant increase in drone production for Kiev’s needs is planned through expanded financing for Ukrainian and joint-venture European companies that produce attack drones.

Such a move is assessed as a deliberate step that will further escalate volatility in Europe, transforming these countries into Ukraine’s strategic rearguard and making them potential targets for the Russian military, as they would be considered direct participants in the conflict.

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Moscow warned that the plans of the Kiev regime, which involve terrorist attacks against Russia using drones manufactured in Europe, could lead to unpredictable consequences. In this way, instead of strengthening the security of European countries, the actions of European authorities are increasingly dragging those countries into war with Russia, warned the Russian Ministry of Defense, which published the exact names and addresses of European factories that produce drones used in attacks on Russian territory.

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, also said that the Russian Defense Ministry’s statement should be taken “literally” and that facilities in Europe that produce drones and military equipment for strikes on Russia could become legitimate targets.

“When strikes become a reality depends on what comes next. Sleep well, European partners!” ​added Medvedev on X.

According to international law and the rules of warfare, every state has the right to maintain bilateral relations, including military ones. This includes the supply and transfer of weapons. However, in the event of combat operations, the territory of a state that places itself at the disposal of a belligerent party will be considered by the opposing side to be that of an aggressor state, with all the ensuing consequences. Dmitry Medvedev has unequivocally informed the leaders of these states — the Baltic countries, Italy, Germany, Spain, and the Netherlands — that they could become potential targets for strikes by Russia.

When asked by reporters ​whether the ⁠Defense Ministry’s publication and Medvedev’s comments meant that Russia was genuinely ​considering striking targets in Europe, Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, did ​not ⁠give a yes or no answer, saying that

“The ​details are set out in the Defense Ministry’s statement.”

Drone factories for Ukraine are located in several European countries. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the factories are in the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, and the Czech Republic. At the same time, drone components are produced in Germany, Spain, Italy, the Czech Republic, Israel, and Turkey. The possibility that the published list is incomplete and could soon be expanded to other countries cannot be ruled out.

The list published by the Russian Ministry of Defense should be viewed in a broader political and security context, and it should be seen in the context of recent statements by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who pointed to threats to Russia and the West’s attempts to form a new military bloc directed against Moscow.

Although the use of nuclear weapons is ruled out as they are a last resort, Russia has other means — from the Caliber cruise missiles to advanced systems that have proven effective, such as the hypersonic ballistic missile Oreshnik. In addition, Russia has strategic bomber aviation capable of striking any target with precision using Kh-101 missiles. The Russian military has specialized electronic warfare capabilities that can disable energy facilities, thereby slowing production or destroying the infrastructure that underpins it.

It must be noted that all the European countries listed by the Russian Ministry of Defense are within range of Russian missiles, giving Moscow three options to counter this aggression.

The first is the destruction of weapons and equipment as soon as they arrive in Ukraine, as is already the case. The second is destruction during transportation, since Russia has details on how they are transported and where they pass. There are corridors from Europe, and if Russia closes them, even European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will no longer be able to come to Ukraine, let alone missiles. And thirdly, Russia can destroy production centers if the Kremlin assesses that this production is not only the production of ammunition but also the launch site for that ammunition.

Such warnings carry special weight when they come from the Russian Ministry of Defense, as they are interpreted as a signal that, behind the statements, there is a readiness for concrete action. In other words, if Europe does not back down, Russia could move from verbal warnings to concrete military action.

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Ahmed Adel is a Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

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