Andrei Kelin says by providing weapons Britain is ‘killing Russian soldiers and civilians’

Jennifer RankinSun 20 Oct 2024 15.15 CESTShare

Moscow’s ambassador to London has said the UK is waging a proxy war against Russia, while predicting the “end of Ukraine” as Russian invading forces make deeper advances into the country.

In an interview with the BBC, Andrei Kelin said Ukraine continued to fight but claimed “the resistance is more feeble and feeble”.

Russian troops, he said, were gaining more terrain every day, adding: “The end of this phase will mean the end of Ukraine.” Russia is thought to control about 18% of Ukraine and has been making slow but steady advances over the last year.

Kelin also described the conflict as “a proxy war led by the United Kingdom’s government” which by providing weapons is “killing Russian soldiers and civilians”.

The comments came as Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, renewed his appeal to western countries for air-defence systems, after Russian missile strikes on the central city of Kryvyi Rih late on Saturday wounded 17 people, according to Ukrainian officials.

Ukraine is losing its territory in its eastern Donbas region to Russia’s invading forces, while coming under sustained bombardment, but has yet to convince western allies to provide it with long-range missiles to strike Russian military targets.

In Kryvyi Rih, Zelenskyy’s home town, a police officer and rescue worker were among those injured in Russian attacks that damaged sites including an administrative building, a hotel and an educational facility, Ukraine’s national police reported on social media.

The regional governor, Serhiy Lysak, said later that 15 apartment buildings, stores, a cafe, a church, office spaces, a bank branch and a gas pipeline had been damaged in the city.

In a social media post on Sunday, Zelenskyy said that in the last week Russia had used more than 20 missiles of different types, about 800 guided aerial bombs, more than 500 varying strike drones against Ukraine. “Ukraine needs more air defence systems and long-range capabilities. I am grateful to all partners who understand this and support us,” he wrote on X.

His post was accompanied with a 47-second video showing numerous smashed-up cars, burning buildings and bombed out homes in seven Ukrainian regions, described as the result of a week of Russian attacks.

Meanwhile, the Russian defence ministry said that 110 drones were destroyed in an overnight barrage against seven Russian regions. Many targeted Russia’s border region of Kursk, where 43 drones were reportedly shot down, but others appeared to go much further

Gleb Nikitin, the governor of Nizhny Novgorod, a city 250 miles (250km) east of Moscow, wrote on Telegram that four fighters had been lightly injured repelling a drone attack over an industrial zone, and were later discharged. He did not go into further details.

The Associated Press new agency reported that social media footage appeared to show air defences at work over the city of Dzerzhinsk in the Nizhny Novgorod region, close to a factory producing explosives.

In Kyiv, officials reported that about 10 drones were destroyed near the capital, with no known destruction or injuries.

Visiting Kyiv on Saturday, France’s foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, pledged support for Ukraine’s plan for ending the war with Russia, telling reporters he would work to secure other nations’ backing for the proposals.

(c)THEGUARDIAN.COM 2024