European sites producing weapons for Ukraine are “legitimate targets,” Vladimir Putin says

“Where is the evidence?” Vladimir Putin demanded when asked about the drones in Leipzig. Speaking from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, where he was attending a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit, the Russian president called the case fabricated for German domestic political reasons.

But Putin also delivered a sharper warning. Western military-industrial sites that supply weapons to Ukraine, he said, are “legitimate targets” for the Russian army.

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Where is the evidence?

A correspondent from the English-language service of Russian state broadcaster Russia Today then asked whether that included Britain. Putin answered with a broad smile: “I can’t tell you that. It’s a secret. A military secret.”

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Legitimate targets

The exchange suggested that Moscow sees only a narrow line between a so-called hybrid operation and a full-scale attack, and that Putin alone would decide where that line falls. In Moscow, several commentators have viewed the recent visit by CIA Director John Ratcliffe through the same lens. The visit lasted only a few hours and remained shrouded in mystery.

Political analyst Sergei Stankevich said the trip may have been intended to “put the clocks right” between the two nuclear powers. In his interpretation, the goal was to ensure that “dirty tricks do not escalate into a full-scale war on the European continent.”

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I can’t tell you that. It’s a secret. A military secret.

The Leipzig drone affair has drawn a firm response from Germany and is presented as the latest episode in a broader range of increasingly complex Russian sabotage operations across Europe. Those operations, according to the framing around the case, primarily target the supply chain for weapons sent to Ukraine.

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Dirty tricks do not escalate into a full-scale war on the European continent.