UK accuses Russia of “wanting to install a pro-Russian leader” in Ukraine

United Kingdom affirmed this Saturday that he has reliable information about Russian maneuvers to “install a pro-Russian leader in Kiev”, at a time when fears are growing that Moscow will launch an invasion of Ukraine.

According to a statement from the Foreign Office, the Russian intelligence services had contacts with several Ukrainian politicians and “former deputy Yevhen Murayev is considered a potential leader” of this former Soviet republic, “although not the only one”.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, quoted in the statement, said the report reveals “the magnitude of Russian activity aimed at destabilizing Ukraine.”

Truss urges Russia to initiate a “de-escalation” and “end its campaigns of aggression and disinformation, continuing the path of diplomacy.”

These accusations are published the day after the heads of Russian diplomacy, Sergey Lavrov, and the American diplomat, Antony Blinken, met in Geneva to try to reduce tensions on the Russian-Ukrainian border and agreed to continue their “frank” talks the next week.

Western countries accuse Russia of deploying tanks, artillery and some 100,000 troops to the Ukrainian border in preparation for an attack.

The Kremlin denies any warlike intention, but conditions the de-escalation to treaties that guarantee the non-expansion of NATO, in particular to Ukraine, as well as the withdrawal of the Atlantic Alliance from Eastern Europe.

Something that Westerners consider unacceptable.

Last Tuesday, the White House said that Russian President Vladimir Putin could order the attack “at any time” and warned that the West “does not rule out any option.”

In Saturday’s statement, Truss said that “any military incursion into Ukraine would be a great strategic mistake” and that it would have “serious costs” for Russia.

The head of the German Navy, Kay-Achim Schönbach, dismissed the scenario of a Russian invasion of Ukraine as “nonsense”. Some statements that caused his resignation this Saturday, as announced by the German Defense Ministry.

With name and surname

The list of people mentioned by name and surname in the British statement who would have been tested by the Russian services also includes former Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, who fled to Russia together with then President Viktor Yanukovic in 2014, due to a popular uprising in Kiev.

The others are the former head of the National Security and Defense Council Vladimir Sivkovich (sanctioned this week by the United States along with three other Ukrainian politicians for their alleged cooperation with Russian intelligence services), former Deputy Prime Minister Serhiy Arbuzov and former presidential chief of staff Andriy Kluyev.

The UK accusation also comes just a few hours after Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu accepted an invitation to meet in Moscow with his British counterpart, Ben Wallace, to discuss the crisis on the Ukrainian border.

The bilateral meeting, which would be the first since 2013, aims to “explore all avenues to achieve stability and resolve the Ukrainian crisis,” a British Defense Ministry source said on Saturday.