Russia denies that it wants to change the Ukrainian government

The Russian Foreign Ministry on Sunday rejected Britain’s claim that Russia wants to replace the government Ukraine by another related to Moscow, and that former Ukrainian parliamentarian Yevheniy Murayev was being considered as a possible candidate.

Britain’s Foreign Office on Saturday also named several Ukrainian politicians it said had ties to Russian intelligence services, along with Murayev, who leads a small pro-Russian party without parliamentary representation.

Those politicians include Mykola Azarov, who was prime minister under Viktor Yanukovych, the Ukrainian president ousted in a 2014 uprising, and Yanukovych’s former chief of staff, Andriy Kluyev.

“Some of these have contact with Russian intelligence officers who are currently involved in planning an attack on Ukraine,” the British office said.

Murayev’s Nashi party — named after the old Russian youth movement that supported President Vladimir Putin — is considered to be sympathetic to Russia, but Murayev rejected it on Sunday, characterizing it as pro-Russia.

“The time of pro-Western and pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine is gone forever,” he said in a Facebook post. Shortly before the British statement was made public, he posted his face superimposed on a James Bond movie poster and the comment “Details tomorrow.”

The British government said his claims were based on intelligence information and did not present evidence to back them up. Tensions between Moscow and the West over Russian plans for Ukraine have risen in recent weeks.

“The disinformation spread by the British Foreign Office is further proof that it is the NATO countries, led by the Anglo-Saxons, that are raising the tension around Ukraine,” the British Foreign Office spokeswoman said on Sunday. Russia Maria Zakharova on the Telegram messaging platform. “We ask the British Foreign Office to stop provocative activity, stop spreading nonsense.”

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the information “sheds light on the extent of Russian activity designed to undermine Ukraine, and is indicative of the Kremlin’s deliberations.”

Truss urged Russia to “de-escalate, end its campaigns of aggression and disinformation and follow a diplomatic path,” reiterating Britain’s position that “any Russian incursion into Ukraine would be a huge strategic mistake with serious costs.”

Britain has sent anti-tank weapons to Ukraine in efforts to double its defenses against a possible Russian attack.

Amid diplomatic efforts to defuse the crisis, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace was scheduled to meet Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in Moscow. No date had been set for the meeting, which would be the first bilateral defense talks between Moscow and London since 2013.

The United States has waged an aggressive campaign in recent months to unify its European allies against a new Russian invasion of Ukraine. The White House described the British government’s accusations as “very worrying” and expressed its support for Ukraine’s elected government.

The president of the United States, Joe Biden, spent Saturday at the presidential estate of Camp David, outside Washington, meeting with his national security team to discuss the situation in Ukraine.