Russia ambassador says UK is 'waging' war by supplying Ukraine with weapons

Andrei Kelin, Russia’s ambassador to the UK, said a "proxy war" was being led by the United Kingdom. Credit: AP/PA

The UK is “waging” war against Russia by supplying Ukraine with weapons, Moscow’s ambassador has said.

The comments come days after the UK announced a fresh round of sanctions against Russian oil tankers and liquified gas tankers.

Andrei Kelin, Russia’s ambassador to the UK, told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “My government firmly believes the UK Government is waging an aggressive war against Russia by the hands of the Ukrainians.

“This is a proxy war led by the United Kingdom’s Government by providing lethal weapons with which the UK Government is killing Russian soldiers and civilians.”

He added: “I think you are aggressive and waging a proxy war against Russia.”

In their last meeting, Volodymyr Zelensky presented his “victory plan” to Sir Keir Starmer in a lobbying bid for greater military support from the UK.

In three-way talks in Downing Street, the Prime Minister, the Ukrainian president and Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte discussed the state of the war.

Mr Rutte said there was no legal reason preventing the use of Western-supplied weapons against targets within Russia, but decisions had to be made by individual states.

Mr Zelensky has been pushing for permission to use Storm Shadow and other Western-supplied weapons to hit the Russian airbases and other military sites which are being used to target Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.

Mr Rutte said the Ukrainians would legally be allowed to do that in response to the Russian attacks.

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Russia’s ambassador also appeared to reject calls that President Vladimir Putin could attend the public inquiry into the death of Dawn Sturgess, who died after coming into contact with the Novichok nerve agent.

Her family have called for Mr Putin to attend the inquiry which is currently hearing evidence about the circumstances surrounding her death in 2018.

Andrei Kelin said on Sunday: “I hardly believe President Putin will go to Britain just to testify to something.”

He said he has never met Ms Sturgess’s family and added that “if someone has died, of course we are concerned about that”.

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