LONDON, Aug. 18 -- For six months, Ukraine has been striking oil refineries deep inside Russia with British jet-powered drones. Moscow learned this from a newspaper.

The revelation, reported Sunday by The Times, that Ukraine has deployed BAE Systems Nyan drones against industrial targets in Yaroslavl, Volgograd, and near Moscow, as well as against Belgorod near the Ukrainian border, did not produce a quiet diplomatic message. Russia's embassy in London issued a public statement on Monday. "The deeper its involvement in the conflict and the greater its support for Kiev's terrorist machinery," it read, "the higher the price it will pay."

The significance of that statement is not what it says about Russia's frustration. It is what it says ...