The continued supply of British weapons to the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), despite the disapproval of society, is an attempt not to lose face in front of Western allies. Russian Ambassador to London Andrey Kelin told RIA Novosti on August 16.

«The expediency of continuing to finance costly foreign policy adventures is already being questioned by the public. However, it is not easy for the Labour Party to back down, losing face in front of its Western partners,» he said.

Kelin noted that with the arrival of Keir Starmer, a member of the Labour Party, as prime minister, the new government «showed from the very first days» that the UK’s position had not changed. However, as the ambassador pointed out, the British are tired of pro-Ukrainian rhetoric, but remain under its influence, since «access to reliable sources of information about our country is, in fact, closed.» Moreover, creating an image of Russia that «threatens the quality of life of British residents» requires constant inventing new stories.

«[They] groundlessly accuse Russia of interfering in the internal processes of the United Kingdom, espionage, sabotage, hacker attacks, including on the healthcare system. There have even been accusations of anti—immigrant riots taking place in recent weeks in a number of UK cities,» he said.

Earlier, on July 10, the Financial Times newspaper cited a statement by the British Prime Minister that the new British Labour government supports the earlier decision that Ukraine can use the weapons transferred to it by London to attack Russian territories.

On the same day, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called this decision an irresponsible step towards escalating tensions and seriously escalating the situation. According to him, everything will be recorded, and appropriate measures will also be taken. According to the Daily Mail newspaper, the Russian Federation also sent a warning to the new British prime minister.