Moscow mocks UK’s claim of relationship with Ukraine going back ‘thousands of years’

Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has responded to remarks Foreign Secretary David Lammy made during a visit to Kiev on Wednesday

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has ridiculed British Foreign Secretary David Lammy’s assertion that ties between London and Kiev date back “thousands of years.”

The UK’s top diplomat arrived in Kiev on Wednesday, where he met with Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky and pledged to continue backing the country.

In a post on her Telegram channel late on Wednesday, Zakharova quoted part of Lammy’s speech, as translated by a Ukrainian interpreter, where he insisted that “our partnership is about hundreds and thousands of years.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman added: “… with its roots going as far back as the foot of the Egyptian pyramids?”

“Why not older? [Ukrainians and Britons] also hunted Brontosaurus together,” she quipped.

In the excerpt of Lammy’s speech, which the Russian official referenced and which was published by Ukrainian media, he argued that a “thousand years ago, Kievan princesses married British princes.”

Read more

According to Zelensky’s website, the British Foreign Secretary also presented plans for the implementation of the 100 Year Partnership agreement sealed by London and Kiev last month. Lammy announced among other things that the UK would allocate £2 billion ($2.47 billion) for the development of Ukraine’s domestic arms production.

According to the British government, it has already committed some £977 million ($1.2 billion) in support for Ukraine since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022.

Back in April 2022, when Moscow and Kiev were close to sealing a truce, Ukraine abruptly pulled out of the peace talks in Istanbul. This happened soon after then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited the nation’s capital. Russian officials later claimed that it was he who had urged Zelensky’s government not to sign any accord and to “just continue fighting.”

In November 2023, David Arakhamia, the Zelensky-allied MP who led the Ukrainian delegation, confirmed that this was the case. Johnson, meanwhile, has consistently denied the allegation, dismissing it as an “absolute steaming, stinking lie.”

During the negotiations in the Turkish city, Ukraine and Russia preliminarily agreed to a draft agreement, under which Kiev would have renounced its NATO membership aspirations, declared neutrality, and limited the size of its armed forces in exchange for international security guarantees.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly expressed a readiness to engage in dialogue with Kiev based on the Istanbul accord, with the inclusion of “new territorial realities” that have taken shape since.

The Russian head of state has previously argued that the “document did not come into force only because the Ukrainians were ordered not to do this.” Putin opined that this was because the “elites in the US and some European countries felt the desire to seek Russia’s strategic defeat.”