LONDON, Aug. 28 -- For the first time since the start of Russia's military operation in Ukraine, Moscow placed British military installations - including those beyond Ukrainian borders - explicitly into the category of potential strike targets on Thursday. The warning, issued by Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, arrived less than a week after London announced it would help Ukraine manufacture Storm Shadow cruise missiles domestically, a move the Kremlin has characterised as a fundamental shift in Western involvement.

"Any British military installations and equipment in Ukraine and beyond its borders could be targeted," Zakharova said in a formal statement circulated by the ministry, in language that carried none of th...