Ukraine vows to counter Russian influence over the country's political and economic spheres Sunday after British accusations that Moscow is looking to install a Kremlin-friendly president in Kyiv.
The UK reported this weekend it had information that Moscow was looking to install a pro-Russian leader in Ukraine and accused several former politicians in Kyiv of having ties with Russian intelligence.
The claims are adding to tensions between Russia and the West over European security, with a recent bout of failed negotiations bringing little relief over a build-up of Russian troops around Ukraine.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff, said the revelations were part and parcel of Russia's approach towards Ukraine and said Kyiv would push back.
Our state will continue its policy of dismantling any political structures that could be used to destabilise Ukraine or aid Russia, he said in written comments to AFP.
Podolyak said that the Kremlin had followed a formula of selecting individuals in business or politics and then using those people to promote Russia's interests. He added that British information follows along the logical chain.
London saw evidence that several former Ukrainian politicians had maintained links with Russian intelligence services, and that former MP Yevgen Murayev was being considered as a potential leader.
Some of those in touch with Russian intelligence officers are currently involved in the planning for an attack on Ukraine, according to a statement from the Foreign Office, though did not release details of the evidence.
The revelations of the plot were deeply concerning Moscow and dismissed them as disinformation and urged London to stop spreading nonsense. On Sunday, Murayev, the former MP who supposedly touted himself as a possible leader of Russia, wrote on social media that the ex-Soviet Ukraine needed political reforms and a new head of state.
The Ukrainian people need to have a rule of law, peace, sound and pragmatic economic and social policies, and new political leaders, he wrote.
Murayev lost a seat in parliament when his party didn't win five percent of the vote in the 2019 elections. He is believed to be the owner of a television channel that was closed last year on allegations that it was airing pro-Russian propaganda.
Hundreds of thousands of Russian troops have been massed on Ukraine's border, along with an arsenal of tanks, fighting vehicles, artillery and missiles, according to concerns in Ukraine.
The capture of two self-proclaimed breakaway republics in Ukraine's east and the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 is a cause of current fears of a Russian invasion.
More than 13,000 people have died in the fighting between government forces and pro-Russian rebels.
That appeal came on the back of a week of talks between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Washington's allies in Ukraine and Berlin before a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Geneva on Friday.
There was no breakthrough, but the US said it will respond in writing to sweeping security demands put forward by Russia in the end of last year.