Following reports that Ukraine had used drones made by two British companies to strike oil and logistics facilities inside Russia, Moscow’s embassy in London accused the United Kingdom of deliberately escalating the war. It promised “consequences” would follow. The deeper the U.K. became involved in the war, Russia said, “the higher the price it will pay.”

What that price might be was left unstated. But that is the point. A vague threat invites the British public to imagine everything from cyber disruption to more Novichok nerve agent-laden assassinations to a Russian strike on London. Moscow wants the warning repeated widely; the fear does the rest.