Russia’s ambassador to the UK said Thursday that the war in Ukraine could have ended two years ago if then British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had not thrown his support behind Kyiv.
In an interview with LBC, Andrei Kelin said the suffering and misery caused by the Russia-Ukraine war has not been worth it.
“We could have ended it in negotiations in April 2022″ if not for Boris Johnson coming and saying “Let’s get out of this agreement, throw it away, and you should fight with the Ukrainians,” he added.
Kelin said that Russia has “absolutely no ambition” to continue its war outside of Ukraine once it has achieved its goals.
Saying his country will do everything to avoid any nuclear escalation, he noted that it is not Russian President Vladimir Putin’s goal to take the whole of Ukraine and instead “liberate” four provinces in Ukraine.
Russia annexed the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine in 2022, in a move generally not recognized by the international community.
Asked whether US President-elect Donald Trump‘s claim that he can end the Russia-Ukraine war in a few days is taken seriously in Russia, Kelin replied: “I believe that Trump’s team, by now, believes that the issue is too complicated to do it in 48 hours or something like that.”