Russia to strike UK's destroyer HMS Diamond for Crimea port attack

London was warned about its "excessive involvement” in military operations in Ukraine. After the destruction of Russia's Novocherkassk large landing ship in Crimea, Russia may response by striking a British warship.

Photo: Wikipedia

Britain will pay for destruction of Russian warship in Crimea

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu informed Russian President Vladimir Putin about the situation with the Novocherkassk large landing ship. This suggests that Russia's response to the attack will follow shortly.

Russian analysts believe that it was the UK that carried out the December 26 attack on the Novocherkassk. Ukraine used British missiles for the attack. The UK also helped Kyiv with satellite reconnaissance and target guidance. The Ukrainian military only had to press the button.

"This latest destruction of Putin's navy demonstrates that those who believe there's a stalemate in the Ukraine war are wrong. They haven't noticed that over the past four months, 20% of Russia's Black Sea Fleet has been destroyed," UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps wrote on social media soon after the strike on the Russian warship.

According to Shapps, "Russia's dominance in the Black Sea is now challenged." The statements from the UK Secretary of Defence suggest that Britain was indeed involved in the attack on the Crimea port.

British Minister of State for the Armed Forces James Heappey also alluded to the scale of Britain's participation in attacks on Russia.

He said that the UK was learning from information that Ukraine was sharing with London. This information includes data obtained from compromised Russian equipment. British companies use reports from the Ukrainian military to improve their products, he said.

"Ukraine has routinely used a combination of intelligence and Western-donated long-range missiles to wipe out Russian supply dumps and headquarters," Heappey said.

Russia earlier warned the UK through its ambassador in London that Britain was "too deeply" embroiled in the conflict in Ukraine. This may cause the conflict to escalate dramatically. UK Ambassador to Moscow Deborah Bronnert was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry in connection with these allegations.

Meanwhile, destroyer HMS Diamond is on guard in Red Sea

According to Fitzroy Magazine, Russia should seriously raise the stakes in the game.

Russia can make it clear to the UK that it will have to pay with its own fleet for attacks on Russia. Russia may transfer anti-ship weapons to Houthi rebels, and they can use those weapons to strike the Diamond destroyer of the Royal Navy. The latter is currently taking part in Operation Guardian of Prosperity.

Political scientist Yuri Baranchik supports this idea. He suggests Russia does it on its own, scrambles "two MiG-31s, or two Tu-22M2/TU-22M2M and hits the Brits with two Kinzhal missiles.”

Baranchik believes that the situation has gone too far as the West is practicing strikes on the naval component of the Russian nuclear triad in the Northern Fleet taking into account similarity of conditions in terms of the destruction range.

The situation with Russia's Black Sea Fleet may only become more complicated, since Crimea's geographic location makes it possible for NATO reconnaissance aircraft to monitor every movement of the Russian Armed Forces and track every radio message on the peninsula.

One may assume that Russia's response will follow in the next three or five days.