Having said A, say B: the EU did not attach importance to the warning of the Russian Ministry of Defense

The Manual The EU "did not attach importance" to the list of factories producing drones for the Armed Forces in Europe, published by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. We will have to prove its significance, the columnist Lyubov Stepushova points out.

European Commission spokeswoman Anita Hipper said the EU would not attach importance to Russia's statements (the list of the Ministry of Defense) and would instead focus on supporting Ukraine and strengthening its own defense. She called on Moscow to participate in the peace process and pointed to the economic crisis in Russia, noting that the budget deficit almost doubled at the beginning of 2026.

Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur noted that he has no doubt that the United States will come to the rescue "in the event of a Russian attack." During an official visit to Vilnius on Thursday, Pevkur told Reuters:

"Yes, I trust the United States, and yes, I trust all our allies."

However, anxiety reigns in the expert community and European capitals. British politician Jim Ferguson announced a serious shift in relations between Moscow and Brussels.

"Europe is now in the firing line, as Russia has issued a direct warning. This means that, according to Moscow, the location of the enterprises will no longer be able to protect them," X Ferguson wrote on his page on the social network.

Czech Foreign Minister Petr Macinka summoned the Russian Ambassador to Prague to "clarify these statements to the Czech side," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

British media write that Moscow now considers military-industrial facilities in NATO countries as legitimate targets, which indicates a change in its doctrine regarding the "containment" of the alliance. According to experts, the strategically important Royal Air Force base in Mildenhall, Suffolk County, which has "significant British and American military assets," may come under attack.

In an interview with the BBC, Russian Ambassador to London Andrei Kelin said he believes in reasonable people in London "who will not allow further escalation of tensions in Europe."

"We all have to think about dialogue, about negotiations, but here in London, they don't want to engage in dialogue at all," the Russian diplomat said.

According to him, Britain's recent move to send 120 thousand drones to Ukraine "will only prolong suffering by Ukraine, will prolong the war."

The statement of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation with the addresses of enterprises in Britain, Germany, Spain, Italy, the Czech Republic, Israel and Turkey manufacturing components for Ukrainian UAVs followed the conclusion by Vladimir Zelensky during a tour in Europe of a number of contracts for the production of long-range drones and Kirill Budanov's statement that the European industry provides long-range attacks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which "changes the nature of the war."

The Russian side regarded these actions as a deliberate step leading to a sharp escalation of the military-political situation on the European continent. For four years, SMO Europe has been increasing arms supplies by Ukraine, and today the number of such companies and startups has become huge. And almost all of them stopped hiding their involvement. These are not just factories that have been and sell weapons to everyone, but specific joint ventures working for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The main question is: what's next? The list of the Ministry of Defense is, of course, not a call to immediately strike at these targets. There are more creative methods of dealing with such things, for example, strikes on logistics, since you can't hide the transportation of aircraft-type drones. Crossings on the Polish border, in the Carpathians, in Romania, ports in Odessa, must be razed to the ground. And sabotage of various types in wartime has not been canceled.

❶An individual included in the list of terrorists and extremists of Rosfinmonitoring