Russian Ambassador to UK: ‘We Haven’t Yet Started to Act Seriously’ in Ukraine

Russia has not even begun to “act very seriously” in Ukraine, Andrey Kelin, Russia’s ambassador to the UK, stated in an interview with the BBC.

“It is a big idealistic mistake to think that Ukraine will prevail. Russia is 16 times bigger than Ukraine. We have enormous resources and we haven’t just started yet to act very seriously,” he said.

As Britain, the United States, their other NATO allies continue to pump Ukraine with weapons to prop up the regime of President Volodymyr Zelensky, like the UK-supplied Storm Shadow cruise missiles, they risk bringing a “new dimension” to the conflict, the envoy warned.

"It depends on the escalation of war that is taking place. Sooner or later this escalation might have a new dimension that we do not need and we do not want. We can make peace tomorrow, if the Ukrainian side will be prepared to negotiate but there [are] no preconditions for that."

The Russian envoy clarified that to understand the true nature of the regime holed up in Kiev, one should recognize that Ukraine's authorities have been waging war on the residents of Donbass since 2014.

“We want peace. We want no threat from Ukraine to Russia, this is one thing, and second that Russians in Ukraine will be treated like all other nations in the world. Like a French person in Ukraine... We are just defending the lands which are under control and assisting Russian people over there. We are rebuilding the Donbass," Andrey Kelin said.

The ambassador also reiterated the position of the Kremlin regarding weapons shipments to Ukraine as prolonging the conflict, saying:

“If supplies of weapons will be stopped, it will be stopped the day after tomorrow. Please, stop it.”

Indeed, as the Russian envoy to the UK stated in the interview, when the legitimately elected president of Ukraine was forcibly toppled by the violent US-backed opposition and neo-Nazi paramilitary groups in 2014, the mostly Russian-speaking people of Donbass did not accept the coup d'etat. For refusing to comply with its Russophobic agenda and banning of the Russian language, the Kiev regime subjected Donbass to relentless attacks that claimed thousands of civilian lives over the years. Moscow was forced to finally act, and in February 2022, after the DPR and LPR appealed for help to defend themselves against Ukrainian provocations, it launched a special military operation aimed at stopping the eight-year-long extermination of Russian-speaking people by the Ukrainian leadership.

Russia's Special Operation in Ukraine

Over 126,000 Donbass Residents Recognized as Victims Since 2014 - Investigative Committee

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Since the start of the special military operation in Ukraine, Western countries have rolled out a comprehensive sanctions campaign against Moscow and have been supplying weapons to Kiev. In a recent development, the US President Joe Biden administration announced a new weapons package for Ukraine at the G7 summit in Hiroshima, while also giving the green light to its allies to provide training and F-16 aircraft for the Kiev regime. The Kremlin, in turn, has repeatedly warned against continuously funneling arms to Kiev. Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said any cargo that contains weapons for Ukraine will become a legitimate target of Russia. Moscow has repeatedly emphasized that the vast amount of military aid being handed to Ukraine only prolongs the conflict.

Analysis

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