UK Deepens Support for Ukraine Amid Russian Warnings of Retaliation

By Sebastian Wigg, 26 August 2026

The Russian embassy in London issued a direct warning to the UK last week, following reporting in The Times that British-made drones had been used for deep strikes in Russian territory. The embassy accused Britain of "deliberately opting for an escalation of the Ukraine crisis", stating that "the deeper its involvement in the conflict... the higher the price it will pay”, and adding that "London's actions will inevitably carry consequences for which it will have to answer".

Prime Minister Andy Burnham responded by reaffirming that the UK would continue "to support Ukraine 100%”. This commitment was reinforced by Burnham’s visit to Kyiv on Monday, when the Government announced that the defence company MBDA was permitted to release classified information on British components used in the long-range SCALP missile, the French-produced version of the UK’s Storm Shadow missile supplied to Ukraine, to support the establishment of assembly lines in Ukraine. 

The decision moves British involvement beyond the transfer of existing weapons towards enabling Ukraine to develop a more sustainable, domestic long-range missile manufacturing capability. It also comes a week after Ukrainian military sources confirmed that British-made drones, including a drone manufactured by a subsidiary of BAE Systems, were used in deep strike operations against military and strategic assets within Russia.

Long-range missile and drone strikes have become an effective strategy used by Ukraine to disrupt Russian war efforts. Oil refineries, naval bases, and logistics hubs have been targeted, including recent strikes on the warehouses of Russia’s Amazon equivalent, Wildberries, that were being used to store and distribute dual-use military supplies. The strikes are reported to have caused more than £35 billion in economic damage and have resulted in fuel shortages, blackouts and civilian casualties across affected regions of Russia. 

With the UK becoming increasingly relevant to Ukraine’s deep strike campaign, it raises the question of whether Russia will view British involvement as reaching a materially different threshold, and whether this could prompt a more substantive response from Moscow.

Andrei Fedorov, a former Russian deputy foreign minister, cautioned this week that there could be a “semi-military” response against UK drone factories by “unknown sources”, claiming that President Vladimir Putin was facing “serious” public and media pressure to “undertake certain measures against the UK”. 

Whilst Russia's threatened retaliation could be rhetorical and form part of Moscow's longstanding efforts to deter Western military support for Ukraine, the rise in hybrid warfare incidents across Europe would suggest that attacks on UK defence companies, British interests abroad or infrastructure supporting Ukraine remain plausible. 

The two British defence manufacturers linked to the deep strikes in Russia, as well as other defence companies involved in Ukraine-bound production, could face heightened risks of sabotage and cyber intrusion targeting their operations and supply chains, mirroring the pattern seen against mainland European defence contractors in recent years. Their facilities and personnel could also face greater exposure to espionage and intimidation.

The timing of the new UK-Ukraine agreement on Monday to share data from Ukraine’s “Avengers” AI battlefield system is therefore significant. The data will support the training of AI models used to protect military bases and defence companies, with the technology eventually expected to be rolled out across critical national infrastructure. 

As military and technological cooperation between the UK and Ukraine expands, so too could the risk of Russian hostile activity against the UK, reinforcing the need to protect the people, companies and infrastructure underpinning their relationship. Wider society could also be directly or indirectly affected, whether through hostile activity targeting civilian institutions or the broader disruption caused by attacks on critical infrastructure and essential services.

A priority for the UK will be to sustain its growing support for Ukraine whilst strengthening resilience to the wider security risks that may result from it.