UK held several secret talks with Kremlin over war in Ukraine
UK officials have held talks with Kremlin officials about international security over the past 18 months in locations including Vienna and New York in back-channel diplomacy taking place behind the scenes, UK newspaper the I revealed on Sept. 22.
The meetings were arranged to discuss security matters both for the UK and internationally, with the talks thought to cover grain shortages and nuclear safety. At no point did the UK seek to enter peace talks on a diplomatic end to the conflict, I reported, citing a senior British diplomat involved in some of the discussions.
“We have been keeping in contact and we feel it’s crucial to maintain an open dialogue during the war in Ukraine,” the diplomat told the newspaper.
“We are in no way divvying up parts of the country or making peace agreements on anyone’s behalf, but it’s vitally important to keep that line of contact open.”
A UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesperson confirmed there had been meetings with Russian officials, only where it was deemed “absolutely necessary,” and said any claims that the talks were a bid to negotiate the end of the war in Ukraine were “neither credible nor accurate.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy endorsed a decision made by Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council on Sept. 30 to outlaw any talks with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of the council, said on Oct. 1 that the decision on a ban on peace negotiations with Russia while Russian dictator Vladimir Putin remains in power had been unanimously adopted at a meeting of the council.
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