The U.K. has information that Moscow is planning to install a pro-Russian leader in Kyiv, as fears of an invasion of Ukraine persists.
The assertions, provided without a timeline on the intelligence, were contained in a U.K. Foreign Office statement on Saturday, as tensions over Russian activity around Ukraine continued to grow.
Yevhen Murayev, a former Ukrainian member of parliament, is a potential candidate, according to the statement. A National Security Council spokeswoman called the alleged plotting deeply concerning. President Joe Biden met with his national security team on Saturday to discuss Russian aggression toward Ukraine, according to a White House official.
The Russian intelligence services have links with a number of former Ukrainian politicians, according to the U.K. It mentioned four by name who are already subject to Western sanctions. The men, who left Ukraine in 2014, are believed to be in Russia.
The defence and foreign secretaries are set to travel to Europe for talks with Russia as a result of the U.K. drive to ramp up pressure. According to the U.K. government officials, Prime Minister Boris Johnson will schedule calls with Group of Seven leaders next week to finalize additional sanctions on backers of President Vladimir Putin.
Russia must de-escalate, end its campaigns of aggression and disinformation, and pursue a path of diplomacy, U.K. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in a statement. A Russian military incursion into Ukraine would be a huge strategic mistake with severe costs. At the meeting Saturday, Biden was briefed on Russia's military operations along the Ukrainian border and discussed the range of options for the U.S. and its allies, a White House official said.
President Biden stated that the United States will impose swift and severe consequences on Russia with its allies and partners if Russia invades Ukraine.
The U.S. said last week Russian actors were preparing for possible sabotage operations against their own forces and fabricating provocations on social media to justify an invasion into Ukraine.
U.S. military aid arrived in Ukraine on Friday, in the face of growing Russian aggression, the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv said on Twitter. The U.K. is sending supplies.
After a statement from London, Emily Horne, spokeswoman for President Joe Biden's National Security Council, said the U.S. stands with our democratically-elected partners in Ukraine. She said that this kind of plotting is deeply concerning.
Russia has assembled a large armed force on its border with Ukraine and sent troops and armor to Belarus, to Ukraine s north, for joint military drills scheduled to begin on February 10.
Moscow has denied that it has intentions to invade.
A meeting in Geneva led by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov didn't yield an agreement, but both sides agreed to continue talks. Aides to Ukrainian, Russian, German, and French leaders will probably meet in Paris on January 26 for talks.
The four former Ukrainian officials named by the U.K. are Serhiy Arbuzov, Mykola Azarov, Andriy Kluyev and Volodymyr Sivkovych.
From 2010 to 2014, Azarov was prime minister. Arbuzov is a former deputy prime minister, and Kluyev is a former chief of staff.
All three were allies of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was toppled after deadly street protests and fled to Russia in 2014. At that point they had their assets blocked over Russian actions in Ukraine, and are still challenging the move in international courts.
The fourth, Sivkovych, was sanctioned Thursday by the U.S., which said he was among pawns working with Russia's spy agencies to destabilize Ukraine.
The Kremlin backed Yanukovych, annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula and stoked a military conflict in the country's two easternmost regions, which has claimed more than 14,000 lives.