Russian President Vladimir Putin is reportedly preparing a final gambit to crush Ukraine, with plans for a 300,000-troop “hammer blow” towards Kyiv and intensified sabotage attacks on Nato, alongside direct military threats aimed at Britain. The escalation follows a diplomatic clash over British weapons technology being used inside Ukraine.
UK missile blueprint row
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced that Britain would give Ukraine declassified blueprints, allowing Kyiv to manufacture and improve long-range Storm Shadow cruise missiles at home. In response, Putin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov reportedly criticised Britain for “adding fuel to the fire”.
Burnham hit back: “Who started the fire? That’s the question, isn’t it?”
Ground push and mobilisation plans
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office Pavlo Palisa have warned that Russia is actively drawing up military options to significantly expand its forces. Intelligence reportedly indicated a renewed ground push could target Kyiv and Chernihiv in the north.
Western and Ukrainian assessments say Russian military officers have already begun quietly testing and rehearsing emergency mobilisation and call-up procedures in heavily militarised regional exclaves, including Kaliningrad, Hamer Intel reported. The strategic goal, observers believe, is to rapidly shore up battered front lines after months of grinding attrition — and overwhelm Ukraine before the war’s third winter bites.
Threats to Britain and Nato
Russia expert Mark Galeotti told the Sun that a new conscription would be “a hammer blow of extra forces” to rejuvenate Moscow’s invasion efforts. He warned the Kremlin’s menacing messaging is designed to sound “scary but ambiguous”, adding that shadow warfare is “a really cost-effective way of disrupting our lives”.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova warned that British military facilities and equipment “in Ukraine and beyond its borders” could become legitimate targets. Kremlin adviser Andrei Fedorov went further, suggesting drone and missile component factories inside Britain could face attacks from “unknown sources”.
International security expert Elisabeth Braw told the Sun: “We’re likely to see more attacks on logistics hubs… but also other airports and railways.” She said Putin has “no reservations about targeting civilian installations”. She added: “Russia is willing to take such casualty risks.”
Electronic warfare and air campaign
Russian military expert Keir Giles further told the Sun: “We should be watching for the expansion of Russia’s electronic warfare, what’s usually referred to as GPS jamming.” Such sabotage on European GPS signals would be “enormous” and “would cause instant massive disruption and chaos”, adding it was “a bit of a surprise we haven’t seen Russia testing that yet”.
Giles said Putin is plotting riskier gambles to push the boundaries of shadow warfare, and some operations have already been “indistinguishable from warlike acts”.
Putin is also reportedly intensifying an “air hammer” campaign aimed at Ukraine’s energy and economy. After Ukrainian long-range drone strikes on Russian oil infrastructure and logistics centres, including Wildberries-linked sites, Putin claimed Ukraine had opened a “Pandora’s box” and vowed to hit Kyiv’s “most sensitive economic sectors”.
