The former President of Russia has warned Moscow could seek revenge after the UK used the nation’s frozen assets to fund military support in Ukraine.
Dmitry Medvedev, a key ally for Vladimir Putin, gave the warning after the UK’s Defence Secretary revealed a £1 billion military aid package to Ukraine was paid for by frozen Russian assets.
It sparked an ominous response from Medvedev, who also sits on Russia’s security council.
He said: ‘Given that the money cannot be recovered in court for obvious reasons, our country has only one way to return the valuables: return it in kind.
‘That is ‘Ukrainian land’ and other immovable and movable property located on it.’
He posted on his Telegram account: ‘British thieves transferred Russian money to neo-Nazis. Consequences? Britain committed an offence.’
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He suggested Russia will respond to ‘any illegal seizure of frozen Russian funds or profits’ by seizing the ‘valuables of the British Crown,’ including British-owned property in Russia, Sky News reports.
This isn’t the first time Medvedev, who is believed to have been Putin’s puppet president, has made threats against the UK.
Last year, he said Russia could drop ‘a bomb on London’ and ‘sink the damned island of Anglo-Saxon dogs.’
The money from the UK to war-torn Ukraine reportedly allows Volodymyr Zelensky’s army to buy ‘hundreds of thousands of rounds of artillery ammunition, hundreds of air defence missiles, spare parts, and new support contracts to help maintain and repair [Ukraine’s] equipment and vehicles,’ the Ministry of Defence said.
Meanwhile, Putin is visiting an economic forum in Vladivostok, where he said today that foreign troops in Ukraine would be legal targets for air strikes.
He also asked Zelensky to come to Moscow for talks, saying he would ‘definitely provide conditions for work and security,’ according to Sky News.
Putin said: ‘The best place for a meeting is the capital of the Russian Federation..Moscow.’
The Ukrainian military said it shot down 121 out of 157 Russian drones during overnight attacks, while a unit targeted an oil refinery in Russia.
Last week, Russia unleashed hundreds of missiles and drones across Ukraine, killing at least one person and injuring 24, including three children, local officials said.
The attacks prompted NATO to scramble its warplanes in Poland near the Ukrainian border.
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