Dmitry Medvedev has warned Moscow may seize “valuables of the British Crown” in revenge for the UK using frozen Russian assets to fund military support for Ukraine.
The former Russian president, a key ally of Vladimir Putin, issued the warning after Britain announced a package of around £1bn for Kyiv’s war effort on Wednesday.
UK Defence Secretary John Healey said the package was paid for by frozen Russian assets.
In a message shared from his Telegram account, Mr Medvedev, who is deputy chairman of Russia’s security council, said Moscow could seize British assets and take more Ukrainian territory in response to the move.
He also referred to British Foreign Secretary David Lammy as “the English idiot”.
Mr Medvedev wrote: “British thieves transferred Russian money to neo-Nazis. Consequences? Britain committed an offence.”
He added that Russia would respond to “any illegal seizure of frozen Russian funds or profits” by seizing the “valuables of the British Crown” including British property in Russia.
In response to Russian assets being frozen by the UK, Mr Medvedev wrote: “Given that the money cannot be recovered in court for obvious reasons, our country has only one way to return the valuables: return it in kind. That is ‘Ukrainian land’ and other immovable and movable property located on it.”
The UK and other Western allies have been imposing sanctions on Moscow and seizing Russian assets since Mr Putin ordered his forces to invade Ukraine in February 2022.
On Wednesday, Britain announced it was imposing sanctions on 11 individuals and entities it claims have been linked with Moscow’s alleged attempts to forcibly deport and indoctrinate Ukrainian children.
Trump says Europe must put pressure on China
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump joined a call at a summit of Ukraine’s allies in Paris on Thursday.
A White House official has said Mr Trump “emphasised that Europe must stop purchasing Russian oil that is funding the war”.
The official said Moscow received €1.1bn in fuel sales from the EU in one year and added: “(Mr Trump) also emphasised that European leaders must place economic pressure on China for funding Russia’s war efforts.”
It came after French President Emmanuel Macron said at the summit that 26 of Ukraine’s allies have pledged to deploy troops as a “reassurance force” for the war-torn country once fighting ends in the conflict with Russia.
Speaking after a meeting of the so-called “coalition of the willing” in Paris, Mr Macron said the countries had committed to deploying troops in Ukraine – or to maintaining a presence on land, at sea, or in the air – to help guarantee the country’s security the day after a ceasefire or peace is achieved.
Earlier on Thursday, Mr Macron and other European leaders met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the the US envoy for peace talks, Steve Witkoff, to discuss ways of ensuring long-term military support and continued American backing for Ukraine once the conflict ends.
Mr Zelenskyy’s office said he had also held a closed-door meeting with Mr Witkoff.
Mr Macron said at a news conference alongside Mr Zelenskyy that the reassurance force “does not have the will or the objective of waging war against Russia”, but will aim “to prevent any new major aggression and to involve the 26 states very clearly in the lasting security of Ukraine”.
Although details of any US participation in the security guarantees remains unclear, both Mr Macron and Mr Zelenskyy said Washington had expressed willingness to be part of the plan, and the Ukrainian president said he was grateful for that.
“As for in what format, I am not yet ready to tell you in detail,” Mr Zelenskyy added.
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Who is Trump listening to on Ukraine?
The Ukrainian president also said in Paris that he would “especially like to thank President Trump for all his efforts to end this war and America’s readiness to provide support for Ukraine from its side”.
“The planning work will be finalised with the United States,” Mr Macron said.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Mr Macron, who lead the “coalition of the willing”, previously insisted that any European “reassurance” force in Ukraine needed the backing of the United States.
‘Two killed in Russian strike’
In developments on the battlefield, Russia claimed on Thursday that its forces destroyed a launch site for Ukraine’s long-range drones in the Chernihiv region.
This has not been independently verified.
Earlier on Thursday, Ukrainian officials said a Russian missile strike on a humanitarian demining mission near the city of Chernihiv had killed two people.
Meanwhile, Ukraine has been targeting Russia’s oil refining capacity, with the most recent strikes coming last weekend.
Around 11% of Russia’s refining capacity has been affected in total so far.
