The Czech Republic demanded an explanation after Russia’s Defense Ministry published a list of companies it claimed are helping produce attack drones for Ukraine and bellicose former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called it “a list of potential targets” for the Russian military.
The list, which included company addresses in numerous nations, most of them in Europe, was published by the Russian Defense Ministry on April 15 along with a warning that such cooperation is “dragging these countries faster into a war with Russia” and could have “unpredictable consequences.”
In a statement on its website, the Russian ministry said what it called European efforts to increase supplies of drones to Ukraine would lead to a “sharp escalation of the military-political situation throughout the European continent and the creeping transformation of these countries into Ukraine’s strategic rear.”
The statement echoed numerous warnings from the Kremlin and Russian government ministries accusing the West and particularly Europe of escalating the war in Ukraine, now in its fifth year since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of the neighboring country in February 2022.
Medvedev injected overtly threatening language in a post on X later in the day, writing that the “Defense Ministry statement must be taken literally: the list of European facilities which make drones & other equipment is a list of potential targets for the Russian armed forces.”
“When strikes become a reality depends on what comes next,” he wrote. “Sleep well, European partners!”
President of Russia from 2008-12 and prime minister from 2012-20, Medvedev is now deputy chairman of Putin’s advisory Security Council.
As president, he presented himself as a relative liberal and a supporter of democratic reform, but he has transformed into an often rabidly pugnacious critic of Europe and supporter of Russia’s war against Ukraine, using social media to deliver strong rhetoric and nuclear threats against the West.
Czech Foreign Minister Petr Macinka on April 16 summoned the Russian ambassador in Prague “to explain these statements to [the] Czech side,” the Foreign Ministry said, referring to the Russian Defense Ministry report and Medvedev’s comments. It said that “several Czech companies…were identified as possible targets of Russian attacks.”
The Russian Defense Ministry listed 11 companies it claimed were involved in producing drones or related components for Ukraine, two of them in the Czech Republic.
Several European countries have announced plans to increase defense cooperation with Ukraine, including joint drone production and efforts to learn from Kyiv’s battlefield experience with drone warfare, as Russia’s invasion continues relentlessly and US support wanes.
During visits by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on April 14, for example, Germany said it would “continue supporting Ukraine’s drone industry as well as establishing drone co-production ventures,” while Norway said it would step up cooperation with Kyiv, including by producing Ukrainian drones.
