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More from WorldUK reaffirms support for Ukraine<\/p>\nRussia has recalled its ambassador to the UK amid growing tensions with London over Britain\u2019s continued support for Ukraine in the war against Russia. <\/p>\n
Tensions between Moscow and London have deepened further over Britain\u2019s support for Ukraine, with Russia recalling its ambassador to the UK and leaving the diplomatic post without a permanent successor.<\/p>\n
Andrey Kelin, who served as Russia\u2019s ambassador to Britain for more than seven years, left his post on July 21. Moscow has not yet nominated a replacement to the UK Foreign Office, and embassy staff reportedly have no indication of when a new ambassador will be appointed, The Times reported.<\/p>\n
The Russian embassy in London said Kelin had left Britain hoping that \u201ca more constructive and respectful dialogue\u201d could eventually resume if the UK changed its policies towards Russia.<\/p>\n
Moscow leaves ambassadorial post vacant<\/p>\n
A spokesman for the Russian embassy said the Kremlin had not submitted a candidate to replace Kelin.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the meantime, the embassy is headed by the charg\u00e9 d\u2019affaires,\u201d the spokesman said.<\/p>\n
Kelin\u2019s departure comes amid a sharp deterioration in relations between Russia and the UK since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
The Kremlin had previously warned that diplomatic ties could be downgraded in response to what it described as hostile actions by Western governments.<\/p>\n
More from WorldUK reaffirms support for Ukraine<\/p>\n
The diplomatic development comes as Britain continues to back Kyiv in the war despite warnings from Moscow.<\/p>\n
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Britain would continue to \u201csupport Ukraine 100 per cent\u201d after Russia threatened unspecified consequences over the reported use of British-made drones in attacks deep inside Russian territory.<\/p>\n
The Russian embassy in London had earlier warned of consequences over Britain\u2019s alleged involvement in such strikes.<\/p>\n
Putin warns of retaliation<\/p>\n
Russian President Vladimir Putin has separately threatened a wider retaliatory campaign against Ukraine following Kyiv\u2019s intensifying attacks on Russian economic infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Putin accused Ukraine of deliberately targeting Russia\u2019s economy and said Kyiv had \u201copened Pandora\u2019s box\u201d by escalating the strikes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Kyiv regime set out to damage our economy. What did it do? It opened this Pandora\u2019s box itself. Well then, expect a response targeting your most sensitive economic sectors,\u201d Putin said.<\/p>\n
Ukraine has increasingly used drones to target Russian oil refineries and other economic infrastructure that it says supports Moscow\u2019s war effort.<\/p>\n
UK-Russia ties remain strained<\/p>\n
The latest diplomatic move adds to a broader deterioration in relations between Moscow and Western governments since the start of the Ukraine war.<\/p>\n
In June 2024, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said reducing diplomatic ties was a standard response to what Russia considers \u201cunfriendly or hostile\u201d actions.<\/p>\n
Russia has previously downgraded diplomatic relations with Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia following the invasion of Ukraine, further highlighting the widening diplomatic divide between Moscow and European countries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russia has recalled its ambassador to the UK amid growing tensions with London over Britain\u2019s continued support for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[478,442,1528,38,25,11321,473,26],"class_list":["post-31879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-ambassador","tag-diplomacy","tag-london","tag-moscow","tag-russia","tag-russia-uk-diplomatic-relations","tag-uk","tag-ukraine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}