Russia Threatens 'Shy Kingdom' After 'Illiterate' Keir Starmer Unveils Ukraine Military Plan

Tensions between Westminster and Moscow have reached a dangerous crescendo. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's announcement that British troops would be deployed to Ukraine as part of a post-conflict peacekeeping arrangement has drawn a venomous response from the Kremlin — one that suggests Vladimir Putin's regime views the plan as a direct provocation threatening its broader ambitions in Eastern Europe.

Senior Putin ally Senator Dmitry Rogozin did not mince words. He branded Starmer 'illiterate and a fool', then escalated dramatically by threatening the UK with unspecified military consequences. 'Even after Russia's defeat in the Crimean War of 1853-1856, such thoughts never occurred to England, France, or the Turks and Sardinians,' Rogozin said in a scathing statement. He continued with a barely veiled threat: 'Of course, Starmer is illiterate and a fool in the grand scheme of things, but he should still understand what we will do to their s***** kingdom if they actually try to implement this nonsense'.

The inflammatory rhetoric represents far more than playground insults — it signals Moscow's determination to treat British military involvement in Ukraine as a red line, one that could fundamentally alter the conflict's trajectory.

Putin's Religious Justification for Endless War

While diplomatic tensions escalated in the political sphere, Vladimir Putin was attending a midnight Orthodox Christmas service that revealed something equally troubling about the Kremlin's mindset. Surrounded by GRU military intelligence generals and their families at a church on the grounds of a special operations facility in Moscow's Senezh centre, Putin delivered a chilling message to his commanders.

'The soldiers of Russia always, as if on the Lord's orders, fulfil this very mission — the defence of the Fatherland, the salvation of the Motherland and its people,' Putin told assembled military brass, effectively framing the war as a sacred calling rather than a political decision. He invoked Orthodox theology to justify the invasion, portraying Russian soldiers as instruments of divine will. This rhetorical manoeuvre is significant: it turns a military campaign into a quasi-religious duty, one that cannot be abandoned without seeming to betray God himself.

The implications are stark. Just hours after this midnight mass, Russian forces launched coordinated attacks across Ukraine. Seven civilians were wounded in strikes on Dnipro — including two girls aged eight and sixteen — as Russian missiles and artillery pounded residential buildings, schools, and kindergartens. In Zaporizhzhia region, more children were injured in separate attacks.

A War Without End

Putin's appearance at this military church service, flanked by the highly decorated commander of elite unit 92154 and other senior intelligence officials, sends an unmistakable message to Washington and the West: the Kremlin has no intention of accepting Donald Trump's peace framework. The fact that the Russian leader chose this moment — a moment of religious observance and military pageantry — to emphasise the divine nature of his mission suggests he views capitulation as theologically impossible.

Meanwhile, the conflict on the ground remains brutally active. Ukrainian forces struck back with their own dramatic action, destroying an oil plant at Stary Oskol in Belgorod's border region in what regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov described as a 'spectacular inferno'. Multiple fuel tanks caught fire on the site, with firefighters still working to contain the blaze.

Infrastructure collapse continues to devastate the civilian population. Hospitals in Lviv were disconnected from electricity due to sustained shortages following weeks of relentless Russian missile and drone strikes targeting power plants across Ukraine. The humanitarian cost mounts daily, yet Moscow shows no signs of restraint or negotiation.

Sir Keir Starmer's decision to position British troops in Ukraine represents a calculated gamble that peace can only be enforced through credible military presence. Yet Rogozin's threats suggest the Kremlin will view such deployments not as peacekeeping, but as provocation — one that might trigger responses far beyond diplomatic protests.