UK confirms delivery of 150,000 drones to Ukraine

150,000 British drones: UK responds to Russia's warning

London has confirmed it will maintain its military support for Ukraine after Russia warned of "consequences" over the drone supply. The decision, announced on 19 August, comes amid a verbal escalation: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has even suggested that the use of British drones against Russian territory could be considered direct UK involvement in the war. The British delegation has not confirmed reports about the use of those drones in specific attacks.

A warning that does not stop the rearmament

The figure is no small one: 150,000 British-made drones. The decision is part of an unwavering policy of support for Kyiv, but it opens a strategic flank. While in Ukraine drones are assembled in a decentralised way –in kitchens and home workshops– in the UK production is concentrated in factories that are easy to locate. Some argue that those plants become a legitimate target, far more vulnerable than the Ukrainian ones.

Retaliation that will not come as missiles

Russia's response, according to the most widespread analysis, will not come in the form of Oreshnik missiles over London. It will be asymmetric: increased military, economic and intelligence aid to the Houthis to attack British ships crossing the Suez Canal or transiting the Red Sea. Russia does not need to get its hands dirty, the argument goes, when it has allies who are no longer paid in rials but in rubles. The threat of an energy crisis that would devastate Europe is another card Moscow could play alongside the United States and Israel.

The unsettling fact: while the UK boasts of shielding Ukraine, its own drone industry is exposed to a counterblow that takes no ballistic-missile form. The war is no longer just Ukraine's.