UK Accuses Moscow Of Trying To Place Pro-Russian Leader In Ukraine

JAKARTA - Britain on Saturday accused Moscow of trying to install a pro-Russian leader in Ukraine.

Britain's foreign ministry said Russian intelligence officials had been in contact with several former Ukrainian politicians as part of the planned invasion of the country.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs refused to provide evidence to support the allegations.

Britain's accusations come amid heightened tensions between Russia and the West sparked by the deployment of Russian troops near the border with Ukraine. Moscow denies taking control of Ukraine.

Britain's foreign ministry said it had information that the Russian government was considering former Ukrainian parliamentarian Yevhen Murayev as a potential candidate to lead a pro-Russian government.

"We will not allow the Kremlin's plans to install a pro-Russian leadership in Ukraine", British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said on Twitter quoted by Antara.

"The Kremlin knows a military strike would be a massive strategic error and the UK and our partners will have Russia suffer the consequences", he said.

The British statement was released in the early hours of Sunday at Moscow time and Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. There has been no statement regarding this from the Kremlin – as the Russian government is called – or Murayev.

A source at the British Foreign Ministry said it was not uncommon to share intelligence material.

The details have been kept secret after careful consideration to deter Russian aggression, the source said.

Through its official Facebook account, the Russian Foreign Ministry denied the British Foreign Ministry's statement and called it "disinformation".

They also accused Britain and NATO of "raising tensions" over Ukraine and urged the British Foreign Ministry to stop "spreading nonsense".

Britain's remarks came a day after top US and Russian diplomats failed to make a breakthrough in talks on the Ukraine crisis, although they agreed to continue discussions.

Russia has sought security guarantees from the US, including a halt to NATO's expansion into eastern Europe, and demanded a promise not to accept Ukraine as a member of the Western military alliance.

"Plots of this kind are deeply worrying. The Ukrainian people have a sovereign right to determine their own future, and we stand with our democratic partners in Ukraine", US National Security Council spokeswoman, Emily Horne, said in a statement.

Murayev, 45, is a pro-Russian politician who opposes Ukraine's integration with the West.

In a poll by Razumkov's Center in December 2021, he was ranked seventh with 6.3 percent support on the list of candidates for the 2024 presidential election.

"The British Foreign Ministry seems confused", Murayev told Britain's Observer newspaper.

"Absolutely illogical. I was banned by Russia. Not only that, money from my father's company there has been confiscated", she said.

Britain, which this week supplied 2,000 missiles and a team of military trainers to Ukraine, also said it had information that Russian intelligence services maintained ties to "a great many" former Ukrainian politicians, including cronies of Viktor Yanukovich.

The former president fled to Russia in 2014 after three months of facing protests against his rule.

He was sentenced in absentia in 2019 to 13 years in prison on charges of treason.

"Some of these individuals have been in contact with Russian intelligence officials who are now involved in planning an attack on Ukraine", the British foreign ministry said in the statement.

The UK prime minister's office previously said that Boris Johnson planned to increase pressure on Russia by calling on European leaders to join the US in confronting Russian aggression.