Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev appeared to threaten the United Kingdom’s public officials in a Wednesday tweet, calling them a “legitimate military target.”
The UK’s Foreign Secretary Cleverly has stated that Ukraine “has the legitimate right to … project force beyond its borders to undermine Russia’s ability to project force into Ukraine itself.” According to him, legitimate military targets beyond Ukraine’s border are part of its…
— Dmitry Medvedev (@MedvedevRussiaE) May 31, 2023
Medvedev, who now serves as deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, posted a tweet accusing the U.K. of “leading an undeclared war against Russia” by providing military aid to Ukraine. He also described public officials in the U.K. as “goofy” and as Russia’s “eternal enemy” and wrote that under the Geneva Convention the U.K. “can also be qualified as being at war.” Therefore, Medvedev claimed, any of the U.K.’s “public officials (either military, or civil, who facilitate the war) can be considered as a legitimate military target.” (RELATED: Russia Issues Arrest Warrant For Lindsey Graham)
Medvedev cited recent comments made by U.K. Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, who said in Estonia on Tuesday that Ukraine has “the right to project force beyond its borders to undermine Russia’s ability to project force into Ukraine itself,” according to The National News UK. Cleverly made the comment in response to a question about recent Ukrainian drone strikes on a wealthy Moscow neighborhood.
White House press secretary Karine Jean Pierre, however, offered a different answer when asked about those same strikes. “We do not support attacks inside of Russia. Period. We have been very clear about that,” she said during Tuesday’s White House press briefing.