London said KGB officers were in contact with a number of former Ukrainian politicians as part of plans to carry out an invasion.
The British Foreign Office confirmed that it has information that the Russian government is considering former Ukrainian MP Murrayev as a possible candidate to head a pro-Russian leadership.
But the ministry did not provide any evidence to support its accusations, which came at a time of high tensions between Russia and the West over Moscow’s build-up of its forces near its border with Ukraine, while Moscow insists there are no plans for an invasion.
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said on Twitter: “We will not condone the Kremlin’s plot to install a pro-Russian leadership in Ukraine. The Kremlin knows that a military incursion would be a huge strategic mistake, and that the UK and our partners will exact a heavy price on Russia.”
“This type of plot is deeply troubling,” US National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne said in a statement. “The Ukrainian people have the sovereign right to determine their own future, and we stand with our democratically elected partners in Ukraine.”
Murayev is a 45-year-old pro-Russian politician who opposes Ukraine’s integration with the West.
A poll conducted by the Razumkov Center Research Center in December 2021 indicated that it occupied the seventh place among the candidates for the presidential elections of 2024, with 6.3 percent.
Murrayev told the British newspaper, The Observer: “This does not make sense at all. I am banned from entering Russia. Not only that, but money was confiscated from my father’s company there.”
On the other hand, the Russian Foreign Ministry rejected these statements, describing them as “disinformation”, and accused Britain and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) of “escalating tensions” over Ukraine.
“We urge the (British) Foreign Ministry to stop these provocative activities and to stop spreading nonsense,” the ministry said on its Facebook account.
The British accusations come a day after top US and Russian diplomats failed to make significant progress in talks aimed at resolving the crisis over Ukraine, despite their agreement to continue dialogue.
Russia has made security demands to the United States, including halting NATO’s eastward expansion, and vowing never to allow Ukraine to join NATO.
Britain, which last week supplied Ukraine with 2,000 missiles and a team of military trainers, said it had information that Russian intelligence services maintain links with “several” former Ukrainian politicians, including prominent figures with ties to ex-President Viktor Yanukovych, who is close to Moscow.
Yanukovych fled to Russia in 2014 after 3 months of protests against him, and was sentenced in absentia to 13 years in prison for treason in 2019.
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