Russia has threatened to use nuclear weapons against the United Kingdom if the NATO country attempts to cut off or attack Russia's exclave of Kaliningrad. The statement follows a miniseries aired by British broadcaster Sky News last week, The Wargame, which traces a hypothetical Russian attack on the U.K. and how the country might respond—including by authorizing operations against the Baltic territory of Kaliningrad. Referencing the simulation and media reports, Moscow's embassy in the U.K. said on Tuesday: "Those advocating plans to blockade or strike Kaliningrad should have no illusions about the consequences." "Any British or NATO military action against Russian territory would be met with a response using all means at Russia’s disposal, including nuclear weapons," the Russian embassy said.
Newsweek has reached out to the U.K. foreign office for comment via email. The statement marks the latest dip in heavily strained relations between London and Moscow, shortly after the U.K.'s top naval official, General Sir Gwyn Jenkins, called Russia the "greatest threat" to British security. "We know that Russia is probing us for weakness," Jenkins, the head of the country's Royal Navy, said earlier this month.
A top Russian official, Yulia Zhdanova, claimed this month that NATO countries were "already testing specific scenarios for blockading" Kaliningrad. U.K.-Russian relations are now at their worst point since the early days of the Cold War, said John Foreman, a former U.K. defense attaché to both Moscow and Kyiv. "It's been downhill since 2014," Foreman told Newsweek.
Moscow annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Kyiv in 2014 and backed pro-Kremlin separatists in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region. Russia still controls these territories, and the U.K. says it has provided at least £16 billion (about $21 billion) in military aid to Ukraine since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022. The U.K.'s relationship with Russia "plunged after 2022," Foreman added.
The U.K. has become increasingly willing to publicly confirm when it tracks Russian ships and submarines near its coastline, including ships linked by Western officials to sabotage of critical undersea infrastructure, like cables and pipelines. In June, the U.K. seized one of Russia's "shadow fleet" vessels for the first time, which Moscow uses to skirt sanctions slapped on its oil exports. British commandos clambered onto the Smyrtos, surrounded by military helicopters and two warships, as it traveled in international waters.
Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the U.K. of "piracy and banditry." Meanwhile, in March, Russia expelled a top British diplomat from the country over spying allegations, which the U.K. government described at the time as "complete nonsense." Another British official had been ordered to leave Russia in January. No replacement Russian ambassador to the U.K. has been appointed since the previous envoy, Andrey Kelin, left London in July. Russia has the world's largest nuclear arsenal, just ahead of the U.S.
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