Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday that Britain must explain what the British soldier killed in Ukraine on Tuesday was doing there, accusing London of helping Kiev carry out “terrorist acts”.
Britain’s Ministry of Defense said Tuesday that a soldier, Lance Corporal George Hooley, was killed in Ukraine while observing tests of new defense capabilities by Ukrainian forces, far from the front line.
Britain, as the leading country of the so-called “Coalition of the Willing”, has repeatedly said it supports sending multinational forces to Ukraine after a ceasefire or peace agreement is reached – a potential deployment Russia has repeatedly warned against.
– London must honestly admit what their own Huli was doing there. It seems that someone in Britain may have started carefully preparing the public for military losses in Ukraine that would be impossible to simply hide and continue to cover up – said Zakharova.
She added that the British government should not mislead its citizens by claiming that British soldiers sent to Ukraine are only advisers or instructors, accusing British forces of helping Kiev “carry out terrorist attacks and extremist tasks” on direct orders from London.
Zakharova also said that Russia would consider any foreign military contingents in Ukraine to be legitimate targets, but offered no evidence to support her allegations of alleged wider UK involvement.
The British government, one of Ukraine’s staunchest allies, has never officially announced how many members of its armed forces are in Ukraine, but the BBC has previously reported that a small group of troops is helping Ukrainian forces and providing security for diplomatic staff.
(Vijesti.ba)
