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Russian MP tells LBC Starmer ‘doesn’t want peace’ and says Putin won’t rule out launching another war
7 March 2025, 17:36
A senior Russian MP has claimed that Keir Starmer wants to prolong the war in Ukraine, and refused to guarantee that the Kremlin won't launch another war.
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Yevgeny Popov, a firm supporter of Vladimir Putin and a deputy in the State Duma (Russian parliament), told LBC's Tom Swarbrick that Sir Keir "wants to continue this war" and "wants to deliver more weapons to Ukraine".
The British Prime Minister has been a key player in pushing for a peace deal and has urged US president to keep up support for Ukraine.
The US has suspended intelligence support to Ukraine, after which Russia bombarded energy infrastructure overnight on Friday, killing at least ten.
Mr Popov said he doesn't know what Starmer wants from Russia.
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"As I see, he wants to continue this war," he said. "He wants to deliver more weapons to Ukraine."
He added that it was "a kind of difficult position for UK government right now.
Mr Popov said that Russia is "ready to negotiate with anyone who can help us to reach a peace agreement. But we didn't see any wish to negotiate from British side."
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, eight years after annexing Crimea in 2014. In the same year two provinces in eastern Ukraine separated in an uprising informally backed by the Kremlin.
It is unclear how many people have died or been injured in the conflict, but it is likely to be over a million, including more than ten thousand civilians.
Mr Popov insisted that Russia wanted peace but also a security guarantee on its western border. He said that Ukraine joining NATO would be unacceptable.
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It's pretty simple," he said. "The main goal of this special military operation or this war, whatever you call it, is security guarantees for Russian people."
Mr Popov added that this meant that European troops on Ukrainian soil in a peacekeeping mission after any deal would be unacceptable to Russia.
Asked for a guarantee that Russia would not invade Ukraine yet again, he refused.
"We're not going to give you any guarantees," he said.
"Who are you for us? And we are not threatening you. Do you think Russia is a threat for London? Moscow is a threat for Paris, Moscow is a threat for Berlin? Of course not.
"It sounds like a mockery but NATO is threatening to Russia. NATO is a direct threat for our security and your infrastructure is in our borders right now."
He said that Russia wanted peace and would accept Ukraine as a sovereign country, but added: "We will never accept Ukraine to be as a threat to Russia, because if Ukraine is going to join NATO, it's going to be a direct threat for Russia."
Mr Popov, a former broadcaster who formerly covered Ukraine, joined the Russian parliament in 2021. During his journalism and political careers he has been an outspoken critic of the opponents of the Kremlin.
He was described by an anonymous source in the Russian state broadcaster as "an absolute soldier of the party and the government, who rigidly executes orders coming from above", as reported by independent outlet Novoye Vremya.
