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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (R) and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson are seen during a bilateral meeting at the Mariinsky Palace in Kiev, Ukraine, on Tuesday. Photo by Ukrainian Presidential Press Service via EPA-EFE
Feb. 2 (UPI) — A top Russian diplomat said on Wednesday that intelligence and information about Moscow’s military buildup near Ukraine, collected by the United States and Britain, is not credible and the Kremlin has “no trust” in them.
Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, made the remarks in an interview with Britain’s Sky News.
His comments came amid soaring fears in the West about a Russian invasion of Ukraine. Those fears have risen over the past few months as Moscow has mobilized tens of thousands of troops near the country’s border with eastern Ukraine.
Russia and President Vladimir Putin have repeatedly expressed concern about Ukraine’s designs to join NATO, but have blamed the West, namely the United States, of “provoking” the crisis over the former Soviet republic.
In his remarks, Polyanskiy said that the troop figures near Ukraine cited in U.S. and British intelligence reports, for one, are incorrect.
“I don’t know where they take these figures from and we have absolutely no trust in the intelligence data from the U.S. and from the U.K.,” he told Sky News.
“I think this is the same intelligence that claims that Saddam Hussein possesses the weapons of mass destruction. The hysteria doesn’t stop, it’s absolutely happening in the heads of Western politicians and not really on the ground.”
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield talks about concerns about Russia’s intentions for Ukraine at a meeting of the Security Council in New York City on Monday. Photo by Jason Szenes/EPA-EFE
Polyanskiy’s retort came after a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday — at which Zelensky cautioned that a Russian invasion could produce a “full-scale” war throughout Europe.
“Russians need to hear us, they need to listen and they need to understand that no one needs war,” Zelensky said, according to state-run Ukrinform. “But we aren’t inviting to our land anyone armed.
“It will be, unfortunately, a tragedy if a major escalation against our country kicks off. So I say frankly that this won’t be a war between Ukraine and Russia, this will be a war in Europe, a full-scale war. That’s because no one will be giving up on any of its territories and people.”
Moscow has denied that it has any plans to invade Ukraine, but a number of experts and analysts have cautioned that a military escalation may be precisely what Russia is preparing for. It’s worth remembering, they say, that Russia forcefully annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
“No one can predict what happens next, no one offers 100% guarantees to anyone, let alone us, who back in 2014 could not have predicted that a war would be unleashed here, that our territories would be occupied,” Zelensky added, according to Ukrinform.
After meeting with Zelensky in Kiev on Tuesday, Johnson also warned that a Russian invasion would turn into a political and humanitarian disaster.
“It might even also be for Russia, for the world a military disaster as well,” Johnson said, according to Ukrinform. “And the potential invasion completely flies in the face of President Putin’s claims to be acting in the interest of the Ukrainian people.”
At the Kremlin on Tuesday, Putin argued that the United States and NATO have “ignored” Russia’s security requests relating to Ukraine’s possible membership to the alliance.
Putin said the West didn’t provide adequate responses for Russia’s three top concerns — Ukraine joining NATO, deployment of strike weapons near Russia’s borders and returning NATO military deployment to 1997 positions. The requests were made in December.
“Ignoring our concerns, the U.S. and NATO generally refer to the right of the states to freely choose ways to ensure their security,” Putin said. “But this is not just about giving somebody the right to freely choose how to ensure their security. … No one should be allowed to strengthen their security at the expense of the security of other states.”