After serving seven years in the position, the Russian ambassador to the United Kingdom, Andrei Kelin, was withdrawn from his diplomatic duties.
His departure is said to have taken place in July, but was made public this Sunday by British media and confirmed on the Russian Embassy’s social media. Kelin’s now public departure is framed within pressures from Moscow on London to reconsider support for Ukraine.
Last week, the Russian Embassy in the United Kingdom warned of inevitable consequences after learning about the use of British drones by the Ukrainian army to strike Russian targets.
“Reports that the Kiev regime is using British drones to carry out attacks on targets deep within Russian territory confirm that London is deliberately opting for an escalation in the Ukraine crisis, while hypocritically professing a desire for peace,” they stated in a communiqué.
They also affirmed that the United Kingdom’s actions “will inevitably bring consequences for which it will have to answer. The deeper its involvement in the conflict and the greater its support for Kiev’s terrorist machinery, the higher the price it will pay.”
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According to the media The Times, the ambassador was withdrawn from his role by Moscow without any successor.
In this regard, John Foreman, former British defense attaché in Moscow and Kiev, pointed out that “although a gap between ambassadors is unprecedented, the embassy’s strident statement this week about the ‘consequences’ and the huge deterioration in bilateral relations since 2018, and especially since the start of the war, makes me wonder if Moscow will permanently downgrade the relationship this time, by default, by not replacing him.”
From the Russian Embassy’s side, they considered it necessary to clarify that nothing in the The Times publication regarding Kelin’s departure implies that the Russian side intends to reduce the level of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
In any case, they pointed out that: “as for the state of relations between Russia and the United Kingdom in all areas, these have deteriorated to an unprecedented low level, entirely at London’s initiative.”
