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The former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has warned that the Kremlin could reduce Kyiv to a “giant melted spot” if Ukraine’s allies give the green light for them to fire long-range missiles deep into Russia.
Ukraine has been calling on the West to allow it to use Western-supplied long-range missiles to target military sites in Russia, which the country says is vital to its war effort.
However, Vladimir Putin has warned that if the US, UK and France give Kyiv permission to fire Storm Shadow missiles at its territory, it would amount to Nato being “at war” with Moscow.
And in an expletive-laden message characteristic of Mr Medvedev, the deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council issued another threat on behalf of the Kremlin on Saturday.
Claiming the West is underestimating the possibility of Moscow retaliating to the decision, he wrote on the Telegram messenger app: “The pompous Anglo-Saxon b***ards do not want to admit one thing: any patience comes to an end.
“And then that’s it. A giant grey melted spot on the site of the mother Russian city. Holy s**t! It’s impossible, but it happened…”
Moscow is known to issue sensationalist threats of further escalation against the West and Ukraine if support for Kyiv is increased. Mr Medvedev’s threats have consistently been some of the most aggressive, and are more closely aligned to the hyperbolic statements from Russian state media presenters than comments from Mr Putin.
The former Russian president’s last post on X, formerly Twitter, suggested Russia could use hypersonic missiles to “sink” Britain in the wake of foreign secretary David Lammy’s trip to Kyiv earlier this week.
But it comes as the US appears to be unsure whether to cross this latest Kremlin red line. Although the UK believed to be supportive of lifting the restriction, Washington has the ultimate say as the systems rely on US technology to work.
Ukraine made a renewed call on Saturday for the West to give the go-ahead, after a meeting between US and British leaders a day earlier produced no visible shift in their policy on the use of long-range weapons.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Andriy Yermak said: “Russian terror begins at weapons depots, airfields, and military bases inside the Russian Federation. Permission to strike deep into Russia will speed up the solution.”
Meanwhile, Russia and Ukraine exchanged hundreds of prisoners of war on Saturday for the second day in a row, with each side releasing 103 people.
The Russian defence ministry said the Russian soldiers exchanged had been taken prisoner in Russia’s Kursk region after Ukraine’s cross-border assault last month.
The United Arab Emirates said it mediated the exchange of 206 prisoners between Russia and Ukraine, in what is their eighth such mediation.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the officials overseeing the exchange in a message on X, saying: “Our people are home.”
