British Foreign Minister Liz Truss on Saturday accused Russia of seeking to install a pro-Russian leader in Kiev. A statement very badly received by Moscow in the midst of rising tensions with Ukraine.
The Russian Foreign Ministry called on the United Kingdom to “stop spreading nonsense” but also to “end its stupid provocations (…), very dangerous in the current situation.”
Faced with this possibility, the Ukrainian government announced on Sunday its intention to dismantle any pro-Russian group. “Our state will continue its policy of dismantling any oligarchic and political structure that could work towards the destabilization of Ukraine or be complicit with the Russian occupiers,” declared Mykhaïlo Podoliak, adviser to the head of the Ukrainian presidential administration.
For Liz Truss, the ideal candidate for Russia is none other than the former Ukrainian deputy, Yevgeniï Muraïev. However, if he is according to the diplomat the favorite, he is not the only one: the Russian intelligence services maintain “links with many former Ukrainian politicians”.
Very high tensions between Russia and Ukraine
Mainly targeted by the British diplomat, Yevgeniï Muraïev reacted to these accusations, calling for us to stop “dividing us into pro-Russians and pro-Westerns”, while stressing that his country needs “new political leaders” guided by “the national interests of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people”.
Among the other names mentioned by Liz Truss, the former Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine from 2012 to 2014, then Acting Prime Minister, Serguïï Arbouzov but also Andriï Klouïev, who headed the presidential administration of the ex-chief of the Ukrainian state Viktor Yanukovych. Or the Prime Minister of Ukraine from 2010 to 2014, Mykola Azarov.
Charges deemed “deeply worrying” by the United States, which is very invested in the Russian-Ukrainian crisis which has resumed very strongly since December 2021.
Accused by the West of having massed tens of thousands of soldiers on the Ukrainian border with a view to an attack, the Kremlin denies any bellicose intentions but links a de-escalation to treaties guaranteeing in particular the non-enlargement of NATO, in particular to Ukraine.
Requirements which the members of NATO refuse. Despite irreconcilable positions for the moment, a relaxation began on Friday between the West and Moscow after several weeks of verbal escalation, during talks in Geneva between the heads of Russian and American diplomats, Sergei Lavrov and Antony Blinken.