London is continuing to push Ukraine “down the warpath” by providing military support and arms deliveries, Russian Ambassador to the UK Andrey Kelin claimed on Tuesday.
He added that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “every other day,” and apparently “does not let him to turn off this path.”
“London has been driving Kiev down the warpath with all its might, this is important, and has not allowed it to turn away, voicing new initiatives. There are constant reports that new weapons are about to be delivered,” the ambassador said in an interview with Rossiya 24 TV channel.
Meanwhile, London is trying to “isolate” Russian diplomats to make it more difficult for them to communicate Moscow’s position, Kelin added, including in relation to the military conflict in Ukraine.
“As for the embassy, until recently there was no one to explain our position on what is happening now, since official London is trying to isolate our diplomatic work from the rest of the world by making contacts difficult. Parliamentary relations have also ceased. It is difficult, I can tell you, but we are working,” he said.
The ambassador also claimed that the media landscape in the UK had been “completely cleared” of diversity, and it is now impossible to find “any alternative article” following the imposition of sanctions on media outlets such as RT and Sputnik.
Since the beginning of the Russian military offensive in Ukraine, Britain has been one of Moscow’s harshest critics and one of the main supporters of Kiev. London is also one of the key arms suppliers for Ukraine, having provided more than $3 billion in aid, much of which came in the form of weapons and other military hardware.
Russia attacked its neighboring state in late February, following Ukraine’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, first signed in 2014, and Moscow’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The German- and French-brokered protocol was designed to give the breakaway regions special status within the Ukrainian state.
The Kremlin has since demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two republics by force.