Important Takeaways:

• Russia’s move to expel British diplomats ratchets up tensions between Moscow and London, hours before Starmer lands in Washington to advance talks on getting the green light from U.S. President Joe Biden for Kyiv to use Britain’s Storm Shadow missiles, which have a range of more than 250 km (155 miles), inside Russia.
• President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that the West would be directly fighting with Russia if it allowed Ukraine to strike Russian territory with Western-made long-range missiles, a move he said would alter the nature and scope of the conflict.
• The Kremlin said on Friday that Putin had delivered what it described as a clear and unambiguous message to the West which it was sure had been heard.
• Washington and London see Iran’s delivery of ballistic missiles to Russia to use against Ukraine, announced by Washington this week, as a dramatic escalation and it had sped up talks on Ukraine’s long-range missile use, three Western sources said. Russia and Iran have denied any such deliveries.
• Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the activities of the British embassy in Moscow had gone well beyond the Vienna diplomatic conventions.
• “More importantly, it is not just a question of formality and non-compliance with declared activities, but of subversive actions aimed at damaging our people,” Zakharova said on Telegram.

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