Medvedev and Borrell Hash It Out Over Drone Strikes – Following two failed drone strikes on the Kremlin on Wednesday, in which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denied involvement, Western and Russian officials have exchanged harsh words over the possibility of the conflict in Ukraine escalating.
The incident prompted Russian officials to threaten new military action as a result of the attack, starting with a statement from the Kremlin which insisted the Russian government “reserves the right to take countermeasures wherever and whenever it deems appropriate.”
Some Russian officials went further in their response to the strikes, with Security Council Chairman Dmitry Medvedev taking to Twitter to warn of heightened conflict in Ukraine.
In a post, the former Russian president responded to comments made by the European Union’s top foreign affairs representative Josep Borrell, all but promising escalation and blaming the West for Russia’s future military action.
“Borrell has spoken out against using the attack on the Kremlin for a possible further escalation of the conflict,” Medvedev writes, adding that the EU official is an “impudent old fool.”
“It is exactly to the escalation of the conflict it will lead, the terrorist attack committed by the Kiev authorities, guided by the US and approved by the EU leadership. This is just what Washington and many dumbheads in Brussels want.”
Medvedev was responding to comments made by Borell in the wake of the Kremlin drone attacks, calling on Russia not to use the incident to “continue escalating” the war in Ukraine.
Speaking to reporters before a meeting of European Union foreign ministers, Borrell expressed concern that Russia will use the attempted attacks to conscript more soldiers.
“We call Russia not to use this alleged attack as an excuse to continue escalating the conflict, this is what worries us, what worries us is this can be used in order to justify more conscription of people, soldiers, more attacks on Ukraine,” Borell said.
While many analysts have speculated that the Kremlin could have orchestrated the attempted drone strikes to justify the deployment of more soldiers or more powerful weapons, Borrell refrained from speculating who may be responsible. Instead, the EU official reiterated that Ukraine had no involvement.
“President Zelenskyy has stated very clearly that the Ukrainians are not involved in this attack, that they are defending their country, but they are fighting on their soil – that they are not attacking Russian soil. This is what Zelenskyy has said, and this is what I have to say,” Borrell told reporters.
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Jack Buckby is 19FortyFive’s Breaking News Editor. He is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society.
