Relations between London and Moscow reached a high point of tension in August over the UK's support for Ukraine. The success of Ukraine’s long-range strikes against Russian targets, aided by UK-made drones, and the UK's decision to share blueprints for manufacturing long-range missiles, led the Kremlin to accuse Britain of deliberately escalating the conflict. Russia’s London embassy warned that the deeper the UK’s involvement, "the higher price it will pay." The embassy accused the UK government of trying to "contain Russia and inflict maximum damage on it by proxy." Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called Britain "methodically and regularly" fueling the war and "hatching schemes" to sabotage peace. Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, warned that British military targets could now be at risk due to Ukrainian strikes using British weapons. In response, UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham reaffirmed Britain’s commitment to "support Ukraine 100%." Russia is not only viewing Britain as a major supporter of Ukraine but also as a key player in an anti-Russian coalition, working through proxies to advance its goals. This portrayal of British influence echoes Soviet-era thinking from exactly 100 years ago. In the mid-1920s, Soviet leaders similarly accused Britain of backing Poland, a country on the western border of the Soviet Union, as part of a broader strategy to undermine the fledgling Soviet state. The Soviets had previously fought a war against Poland in 1919–20, which ended in a Soviet defeat. This historical enmity, combined with Britain’s earlier support for the anti-Bolshevik "White Armies" during the Russian Civil War, fueled distrust of British intentions. By the 1920s, Soviet leaders began to see Britain as a hidden force behind threats to the USSR, much like they now see Britain behind Ukraine’s actions. In 1926, Józef Piłsudski, a nationalist leader who had led Poland to victory over the Soviets in 1920, seized power in a coup. Soviet officials, including head of the secret police Feliks Dzerzhinsky, believed the coup was orchestrated by Britain. They claimed Britain was building an anti-Soviet bloc that included Poland and other countries on the Soviet border. Soviet intelligence reports described Piłsudski as Britain’s "guard dog" in Eastern Europe. These suspicions were further fueled in 1927 when a Russian official in Warsaw, Pyotr Voikov, was assassinated. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin believed Britain was behind the murder, claiming it was an attempt to provoke a conflict with Poland, similar to the 1914 assassination in Sarajevo that triggered World War I. While Soviet fears were partly based in reality—British authorities had recently broken off diplomatic ties with the USSR—Stalin exaggerated the threat, insisting Britain was coordinating attacks against the Soviet Union through countries like Poland. Soviet officials also accused Winston Churchill of directing assassins against Soviet officials. These ideas persisted into the early 1930s, but the rise of Nazi Germany shifted Soviet focus to a new threat. Today, Russia’s rhetoric toward Britain mirrors this historical narrative, portraying Britain as a hidden enemy working to undermine Russia through Ukraine. This view has been reinforced in new Russian school textbooks, which highlight Britain’s role in historical conflicts, including the 1927 war scare. As relations between Russia and Britain deteriorate, these historical parallels continue to shape the official narrative in Russia.