"Where is Britain? Where is Cameron? He is clearly a bit player. Nobody is taking any notice of him. He is now a foreign policy irrelevance," Sir Richard Shirreff, a former top NATO commander, said, as quoted by The Times newspaper.
In response, No 10 Downing Street stated that the UK has always tried to "hold Russia accountable for its annexation of Crimea," as well as for alleged support of eastern Ukrainian militia, the BBC reported. Financial and trade sanctions brought economic sanctions brought pressure on Moscow, with President Vladimir Putin agreeing to meet his French and German counterparts, the British government said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are currently holding talks on a new plan to settle the Ukrainian crisis in Moscow. The French and German leaders visited Kiev prior to coming to Moscow, where they discussed new proposals with President Petro Poroshenko.
The EU, the United States and their allies imposed several rounds of anti-Russia sanctions in 2014, targeting individuals, banking, energy and defense sectors. The Western countries accuse Moscow of interference in the Ukrainian conflict by supporting independence fighters in the country's southeast.
Moscow has repeatedly denied involvement in Ukraine's internal affairs.
