Embassy Comment on Keir Starmer’s Visit to Ukraine 

Prime Minister Starmer's ‘solidarity visit’ to Ukraine on 16 January represents a desperate attempt by British handlers to keep the agonising Kiev regime afloat.

The statements and official documents related to the trip have revealed new highly provocative UK plans, including the establishment of military bases within Ukrainian territory and assistance in developing long-range weapons. This is poised to provoke new rounds of escalation. Ideas are being floated regarding the deployment in Ukraine of a British contingent in one form or another as part of a Western occupation force with blurred tasks and objectives.

The UK political and security establishment, which prevented Kiev from ending the conflict in the spring of 2022, remains true to itself and continues to drag Ukraine into the abyss.

The Labour government in this regard has not strayed an inch from the path set by its Conservative predecessors. Meanwhile, the documents adopted during the visit cynically insist on compliance with the Helsinki Final Act and the OSCE Charter of Paris, which, it should be recalled, emphasise the indivisibility of European security and the obligation not to strengthen one’s own security at the expense of the security of others. The UK has been at the forefront of dismantling these fundamental principles, which in the past had been viewed as a cornerstone of pan-European politico-military architecture.

In the West, including within the UK, a growing number of people are beginning to doubt the benefits of foreign “partners” leading the Ukrainian people down the road of self-destruction. Those that in the past heralded the imminent victory of the Kiev regime, have now resigned themselves to contemplating the prospects of prolonging its lifespan for another few months. The UK establishment's foreign policy adventures have also not yielded the desired benefits, failing to stabilise their plummeting approval ratings.

Yet the British leadership, contrary to common sense, soldiers on. This year it promises to allocate an unprecedented amount of £4.5 bln for Ukrainian military needs.

It is questionable whether these handouts will impress British taxpayers who are still recovering from the hardships of the years-long cost-of-living crisis. Especially since the visit marked the de-facto acknowledgement of the Kiev authorities’ murky trail of corruption. Lofty assurances that some of the transferred funds will supposedly find their way back to the British treasury look unconvincing.

The statements on the unbreakable bond between the UK and Ukraine, as well as the signed agreement referring to a ‘century-long partnership’, are particularly grotesque. They once again highlight the neo-colonial mindset of UK officials, ordaining their ‘exclusive’ claims for the exploitation of Ukraine, its agricultural lands, rare-earth elements and other critical minerals. The British clientele in Kiev seem to have signed on the dotted line without having studied the fine print.

The visit has once again confirmed that London is set to continue employing their Ukrainian proxies as mere geopolitical tools against Russia.

We consider the promised British assistance in the development of long-range weapons, the creation of military infrastructure, including bases, military equipment and weapons storage facilities, as well as “war reserves”, to be a direct threat to the Russian Federation emanating from the territory of neighboring Ukraine.

This serves to further reinforce both the validity of Russia’s Special Military Operation as well as the unswerving resolve to see all its goals and objectives set by the President of Russian Federation fully accomplished.