Russian ambassador laughs at notion Kremlin was behind Salisbury poisoning

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

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.’

The comments came as part of a wide-ranging interview with Ms Kuenssberg in which the ambassador chuckled at the notion of Russia’s involvement with the Salisbury poisoning and said he had nothing to say to the victims.

When challenged by Kuenssberg about the 2018 Novichok poisoning, which governments in the UK, US, France, Germany and Canada all believe was carried out by Russia following an extensive investigation, Kelin dismissed the allegations as ‘nonsense’ and said ‘too many governments’ were involved.

The family of Dawn Sturgess, who died in the attack, have called on Vladimir Putin to testify at the inquiry into her death.

But when asked whether he thinks the Russian president should attend, Klein said ‘I hardly believe President Putin will go to Britain just to testify something.’

‘Why drag this history so long?’ He added.

Kelin also rejected calls for the two suspects, Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov, to attend the inquiry, citing an interview broadcast on Russian state TV in which the former intelligence operatives claimed they were merely only in London to view the Salisbury Cathedral as proof of their innocence.

The Salisbury poisonings were a botched attempt to kill former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia at a Salisbury restaurant in 2018. The suspects were believed to have carried out the attempt using the deadly nerve agent Novichok, which was concealed in a perfume bottle.

Following the attack, the suspects ditched the perfume bottle in a nearby bin where it was found by a man named Charlie Rowley, who presented it to his partner Dawn Sturgess who sprayed it on her wrist.

Sturgess immediately began to feel ill and was rushed to hospital, where she died several days later, but Rowley, who had also come into contact with the nerve agent, survived.

When asked if he had any words for the family of Dawn Sturgess, Kelin said: ‘I have never met this family … If someone has died, of course we are concerned about that.’

Elsewhere in the interview, Kelin rubbished Ukrainian president Zelensky’s ‘victory plan’ against Russia in which he outlined steps to end the Russian invasion by the end of next year.

‘If Zelensky won’t negotiate with us, fine’, the ambassador said. ‘He will lose more and more terrain.’

When challenged on Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine,Kelin said Zelensky ‘does not want peace … he continues to ask for more and more; Nato, EU assistance, defence packages.

‘Anything, but nothing about negotiations at all.’

Amongst Zelensky’s proposals to end the war are a formal acceptance of Ukraine into Nato and a lifting of the ban on long-range missile strikes deep into Russia.

But Kelin said Zelensky is becoming ‘desperate’ and that the Ukrainian resistance knows they are losing and are becoming increasingly ‘feeble’.

Kyiv has steadfastly refused to negotiate with Russia throughout the conflict as they believe any attempts to do so would result in the permanent loss of Ukrainian territory.

Kelin suggested the conflict could stop if western nations agreed to stop supplying arms to Ukraine.

‘No one likes the war,’ he said. ‘But we are not just going to say, OK, [from] tomorrow we do not shoot each other. We won’t.’

‘We are in favour of the speediest solution to the conflict. But we do not feel reciprocity’.

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