Published: October 16, 2025 1:44 pm
Author: RT
The media prefer touting Kiev’s local successes while ignoring Moscow’s steady progress, Ambassador to the UK Andrey Kelin has said
The Western media is distorting the battlefield situation in the Ukraine conflict by hyping up Kiev’s limited successes while ignoring Moscow’s steady advances, Russia’s ambassador to the UK, Andrey Kelin, has said.
In an interview aired by TRT World on Thursday, Kelin rejected the notion that the conflict had reached a stalemate, saying that Russian forces hold the initiative “along the whole long front line.” Western outlets, he argued, are “trying to single out some successes by the Ukrainian army” while overlooking Russia’s day-to-day progress.
The narrative, he argued, “is just to raise some spirit in Ukraine and especially among Europeans so they will not abandon their efforts to continue to finance this war and provide armament, which only prolongs the conflict.”
Responding to reports suggesting that Moscow might set its sights on the West after the Ukraine conflict is over, the ambassador said Western outlets routinely gloss over President Vladimir Putin’s assurances that Russia has no intention of attacking NATO countries.
“Our problem is Ukraine, and the efforts to support Ukraine.”
Kelin also weighed in on debates about sending US-produced long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, noting that Russia has heard “quite a lot of threats pronounced by Europeans and Americans as well.” “They cannot influence our policy… We are too big to listen to the threats,” he said.
READ MORE: Britain plotting to drag EU into Ukraine-style degradation – FSB chief
He also said that Russia can continue its military campaign for as long as it takes. “We can continue for years and years because we are self-sustained,” the envoy said, dismissing Western claims that Russia faces shortages of technology or components. “In terms of armament production, we do not need external assistance like the Ukrainians do.”
He added that Ukraine’s forces would collapse “within weeks” if Western arms supplies were cut off.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said Russia remains open to diplomacy with Kiev but, “in the absence of alternatives, continues the special military operation” to protect the country’s interests. Moscow maintains that a lasting settlement requires Ukraine to commit to neutrality, demilitarization, denazification, and recognition of the new territorial realities on the ground.
