Russia-Ukraine war live: UK’s plan to train service members in Ukraine makes them ‘legal targets’, says Medvedev

Medvedev: UK’s plans to train service members in Ukraine makes them ‘legal targets’

Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former leader, has responded to comments made by UK defence secretary Grant Shapps today that the UK is in talks to move training and production of military equipment into Ukraine.

“The number of leading idiots in Nato countries is growing,” Medvedev, who now serves as deputy chair of Russia’s security council, said on Telegram.

Medvedev said that transferring English training courses for Ukrainian soldiers to the territory of Ukraine itself would “turn your instructors into legal targets for our armed forces. Knowing full well that they will be mercilessly destroyed. And no longer as mercenaries, but precisely as British Nato specialists.”

In the same Telegram post, Medvedev called out “the head of the German defence committee with an unpronounceable surname – Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann – who said yesterday that she believes that Ukraine has the right to use long-range missiles to attack targets on the territory of the Russian Federation.

“They say this is in accordance with international law,” Medvedev said. “Well, in this case, attacks on German factories where these missiles are made will be fully consistent with international law.”

“These idiots are actively pushing us towards a third world war,” Medvedev said.