Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Head of Russia’s Security Council, has said that his country will consider German missiles manufacturing plants a "legitimate target" if Germany gives long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine.

Details: Medvedev was dismayed that Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, chair of the Defence Committee at the German Bundestag, urged the German government to give long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine because she said Ukraine has the right to attack targets on the territory of the Russian Federation.

Quote: "In this case, attacks on German plants where these missiles are made will be entirely within the norms of international law.

These imbeciles [sic] really are pushing us towards the Third World [War]..."

Details: Medvedev also threatened the UK that Russia will attack British military instructors after UK Defence Minister Grant Shapps said that his country would expand its training programme for Ukrainian soldiers and transfer training and production of military equipment to Ukraine.

Russia could target any British soldiers training troops in Ukraine - Medvedev

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Sunday any British soldiers training Ukrainian troops in Ukraine would be legitimate targets for Russian forces, as would German factories producing Taurus missiles should they supply Kyiv.

Medvedev, who is deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council and has become an increasingly hawkish and anti-Western figure in Russian politics, said such activities by the West were bringing World War Three closer.

In a post on Telegram, Medvedev first directed his ire towards recently appointed British Defence Minister Grant Shapps, who said in a newspaper interview that London wants to deploy military instructors to Ukraine, in addition to training Ukrainian armed forces in Britain or other Western countries as at present.

"(This will) turn their instructors into a legal target for our armed forces ... understanding perfectly well that they will be ruthlessly destroyed. And not as mercenaries, but namely as British NATO specialists," Medvedev wrote on Telegram.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak rowed back from Shapps' comments on Sunday, saying there were no immediate plans to deploy military instructors to Ukraine.

"What the defence secretary was saying was that it might well be possible one day in the future for us to do some of that training in Ukraine," Sunak told reporters at the start of the governing Conservative Party's annual conference in Manchester.

"But that's something for the long term, not the here and now. There are no British soldiers that will be sent to fight in the current conflict."

Medvedev also vilified those in Germany who want Berlin to supply Ukraine with Taurus cruise missiles that could strike Russian territory and try to limit Moscow's supply to its army.

"They say this is in accordance with international law. Well, in that case, strikes on German factories where these missiles are made would also be in full compliance with international law," Medvedev said.

"These morons are actively pushing us towards World War Three," he added, repeating similar warnings he has made before. In July he said actions by the "completely crazy" West meant World War Three "is getting closer."

Deputy Head of Russia's Security Council threatens to capture more Ukrainian territories

Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Head of Russia’s Security Council, has said that Russia intends to capture more Ukrainian territories.

Source: Dmitry Medvedev on Telegram on the Day of "Reunification" of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts with Russia

Quote: "The special military operations [Russia’s euphemism for the war against Ukraine - ed.] will continue until Kyiv’s Nazi regime is annihilated and historically Russian territories are liberated from the enemy. The victory will be ours.

More new territories will become part of Russia."

[Russian officials often refer to the lawfully elected Ukrainian government as the "Nazi regime" and claim that internationally recognised Ukrainian territories are "historically Russian" and thus in need of being "liberated" in an effort to justify Russia’s war against Ukraine - ed.]

Previously: On 6 August, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia does not want more Ukrainian territory; the four oblasts and Crimea that were illegally included in the Russian Constitution are enough.

Background:

• On 30 September 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the "agreement on the accession to Russia" of the occupied Ukrainian territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts and declared that henceforth, residents of those territories would be recognised as citizens of the Russian Federation. The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation approved this decision, which was later ratified by the State Duma and the Federation Council.

• On 28 September 2023, Putin signed a law establishing 30 September as the Day of "Reunification" of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts with Russia.