Kirill Dmitriev, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy, accused the British government of seeking to prolong the war in Ukraine and using its media influence to obstruct peace efforts and cooperation between the United States and Russia, adding that the European Union was following the same approach.
Dmitriev accuses London of obstructing peace
Dmitriev said on X: “The obvious problem that everyone is ignoring is the desire of the left-wing British government for an endless war in Ukraine to distract from its destruction of the British way of life.” The Russian official added that the United Kingdom was “using its immense media influence to sabotage any peace effort in Ukraine and any US-Russian cooperation”, before saying that the European Union was “following its lead”.
Dmitriev’s comments came after British Prime Minister Andy Burnham accused Russia of interfering in Britain’s vote to leave the European Union. Burnham said Moscow’s interference in the referendum was clear, stressing the importance of documenting it as other European countries, he said, faced the same threat.
In excerpts from The Rest Is Politics podcast published on Sunday, Burnham said he had asked his advisers, after becoming prime minister in July, whether Russia had interfered in the 2016 referendum. He said: “I received a clear answer that yes, there was interference.”
Burnham stressed the need to document and publicly prove these events, saying this would help voters in Germany and France recognise that some political actions were being encouraged by what he described as forces hostile to his country. He named Russia explicitly.
