Russia denies claim it wants to replace Ukraine’s leaders
MOSCOW — Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday rejected a British claim that the Kremlin is seeking to replace Ukraine’s government with a pro-Moscow administration, and that former Ukrainian lawmaker Yevheniy Murayev is a potential candidate.
Britain’s Foreign Office on Saturday also named several other Ukrainian politicians it said had links with Russian intelligence services, along with Murayev who is the leader of a small party that has no seats in parliament.
Those politicians include Mykola Azarov, a former prime minister under Viktor Yanukovych, the Ukrainian president ousted in a 2014 uprising, and Yanukovych’s former chief of staff, Andriy Kluyev.
“Some of these have contact with Russian intelligence officers currently involved in the planning for an attack on Ukraine,” the Foreign Office said.
Murayev told The Associated Press via Skype that the British claim “looks ridiculous and funny” and that he has been denied entry to Russia since 2018 on the grounds of being a threat to Russian security. He said that sanction was imposed in the wake of a conflict with Viktor Medvedchuk, Ukraine’s most prominent pro-Russia politician and a friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Murayev’s Nashi party — whose name echoes the former Russian youth movement that supported Putin — is regarded as sympathetic to Russia, but Murayev on Sunday pushed back on characterizing it as pro-Russia.
“The time of pro-Western and pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine is gone forever,” he said in a Facebook post.
“Everything that does not support the pro-Western path of development of Ukraine is automatically pro-Russian,” Murayev told The AP.
He also said he supports Ukraine having neutral status and believes that “striving for NATO is tantamount to continuing the war.” Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed separatists have been fighting in the country’s east since 2014, a conflict that has killed more than 14,000.
Ukrainian political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko described Murayev as a significant figure in Ukraine’s pro-Russia camp, but added: “Murayev is a second-place player. I don’t think Murayev has direct connections in the Kremlin.”
The U.K. government made the claim based on an intelligence assessment, without providing evidence to back it up. It comes amid high tensions over Russia’s designs on Ukraine and each side’s increasing accusations the other is planning provocations.
“The disinformation spread by the British Foreign Office is more evidence that it is the NATO countries, led by the Anglo-Saxons, who are escalating tensions around Ukraine,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on the Telegram messaging app Sunday. “We call on the British Foreign Office to stop provocative activities, stop spreading nonsense.”
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the information “shines a light on the extent of Russian activity designed to subvert Ukraine, and is an insight into Kremlin thinking.”
Truss urged Russia to “deescalate,” and reiterated Britain’s view that “any Russian military incursion into Ukraine would be a massive strategic mistake with severe costs.”
Britain has sent anti-tank weapons to Ukraine to bolster the country’s defenses against a Russian attack.
Mark Galeotti, who has written extensively on Russian security services, said: “I can’t help but be skeptical” about the British claim.
“This is one of those situations where it is hard to know whether what we’re facing is a genuine threat ...or ‘strategic communication’” he said.