London could resort to underhanded tactics in any country it is interested in, Sergey Naryshkin has claimed

The UK could stage a provocation against Russia, and has a track record of conducting hostile activities against Moscow, the head of the country's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Sergey Naryshkin, has claimed.

Speaking to TASS on Saturday, he did not rule out the possibility that the UK could deploy chemical weapons in Ukraine to frame Russia as the perpetrator.

"Britain could resort to provocations on the territory of any state if Britain is interested in it," the official said, adding that the SVR is well aware of London's covert hostile activities aimed at Russia.

In a statement on Thursday, the SVR also alleged that British and French intelligence agencies have been secretly working to undermine US President Donald Trump's peace efforts in the Ukraine conflict and derail normalization between Washington and Moscow.

Commenting on recent Western media reports regarding the scale of Britain's involvement in the Ukraine conflict, the Russian ambassador to the UK, Andrey Kelin, said last week that he was not at all surprised by the revelations.

"We've known and publicly spoken about this for a long time. Previously, though, such statements were presented here as Russian propaganda, and now British journalists are writing about it," he added.

Kelin also suggested that a lack of public discussion about London's role in the Ukraine conflict in the wake of the media reports served as a "tacit admission that Britain is engaging in unannounced hostile actions against us."

Earlier this month, The Times, citing unnamed Ukrainian and British military officers, reported that the extent of the UK's involvement in the hostilities between Kiev and Moscow has been far more extensive than previously known. The newspaper claimed that "UK troops were secretly sent to fit Ukraine's aircraft with the [Storm Shadow long-range cruise] missiles and teach [Ukrainian] troops how to use them."

London also reportedly played a key role in helping Ukraine prepare its much-touted 2023 counteroffensive against Russian forces, as well as in mediating between Kiev and Washington when the operation failed to meet US expectations.

(RT.com)