Russia has issued its most direct threat yet against NATO territory, warning that European factories producing weapons for Ukraine are "potential military targets" for Russian strikes. The warning, delivered on Wednesday by Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, was a response to Poland's proposal to host a factory building Patriot interceptor missiles for Ukraine — and it marks a sharp escalation in Moscow's rhetoric against countries arming Kyiv.
"Anyone who thinks so is mistaken"
Zakharova told a press briefing that Moscow considers arms plants outside Ukraine fair game. "Weapons factories in European countries that produce arms for Ukraine are potential military targets for Russia, and one should not assume that military factories outside Ukrainian territory which produce weapons for the Kyiv regime will be safe. Anyone who thinks so is mistaken," she said, according to Reuters.
She was answering a question about Poland's offer to host a factory producing Patriot interceptor missiles for Ukraine. "European countries are directly involved in the Ukrainian conflict. They are not merely providing aid. By opening arms factories and joint ventures, they are fully involved," she added, claiming such activity only delays an end to the war.
The Patriot plant that provoked Moscow
Poland's offer came days earlier, on September 26, when Deputy Defence Minister Magdalena Sobkowiak-Czarnecka told TVN24 that Warsaw had proposed moving any planned Ukrainian Patriot production facility to Poland "so that it is located in what is known as a 'safe zone'." The logic is straightforward: a missile factory in wartime Ukraine would be an immediate Russian target, while Polish soil — under NATO's Article 5 umbrella — should be safe.
The proposal followed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's statement that US President Donald Trump had "made the final decision" to grant Ukraine a licence to manufacture Patriot missiles. US and Ukrainian teams are still working on the details of launching production, and Poland is separately negotiating with Washington on a Patriot servicing centre and domestic production capacity.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had already hinted at the Kremlin's answer on September 29 at the Valdai discussion forum, pointing to Russia's military doctrine: "We have a military doctrine on this matter, which President Vladimir Putin has referenced multiple times. I urge you to study the relevant sections of this crucial document carefully," he said, according to TASS.
Europe refuses to back down
Despite the threat, European military support for Ukraine keeps accelerating. Zelensky said on Tuesday that Belgium will transfer three F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine by the end of 2026, that Kyiv has already received urgent deliveries of F-16 ammunition from Belgium and Spain, and that Ukraine has been given a NASAMS air defence system developed jointly by the United States and Norway.
Poland, meanwhile, is organising its 50th batch of military aid to Ukraine, with total weapons packages since 2022 worth around $5 billion. On September 22, Polish Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz visited the Dorohusk–Yahodyn border crossing and announced new air-defence elements for the border region, with Patriot batteries deployed in the two Polish regions bordering Ukraine.
Moscow's threat to strike factories in a NATO country crosses a line even by the Kremlin's own recent standards — from drone incursions into European airspace to sabotage warnings. The question now is whether NATO will treat an attack on a European weapons plant the way Moscow assumes it will: as a message. Or the way the alliance's founding treaty says it should be treated: as an act of war.
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