Russia said on Friday that any deployment of British military assets in Ukraine under a new century-long partnership agreement between Kiev and London would worry Moscow.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was asked about the possibility of Britain setting up military bases in Ukraine under an agreement announced on Thursday by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
“Given that Britain is a member of NATO, the advancement of its military infrastructure towards our borders is certainly a rather worrying element. In any case, it will be necessary to further analyze what will happen,” Peskov said.
During talks in Kiev on Thursday, Zelensky said he had spoken with Starmer about Kiev’s desire for Western peacekeepers to be deployed in Ukraine if the war with Russia ends.
Asked whether Britain would provide troops, Starmer said in an interview with Sky News that he had discussed the matter with Zelensky and other allies and that Britain would “play its full role.”
Peskov said Moscow also has a “negative” view of the prospects for British cooperation with Ukraine in the Sea of Azov, which he described as Russia’s “internal sea.”
The Sea of Azov borders southwestern Russia, parts of southern Ukraine that Russia captured in the war, and the Crimean peninsula that Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014, Reuters reported.
