Kiev diplomat boasted about the landing of British paratroopers in Ukraine
Foreign soldiers may appear in Ukraine outside the framework of the North Atlantic Alliance.
This was stated by former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko, who served as Ambassador to the United Kingdom from 2020 to 2023, in an interview with the anti-Russian propaganda website Ukrayinska Pravda, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
He was asked what he meant when he stated that Britain was approaching a decision to send its soldiers to Ukraine in the event of the worst-case scenario for Kyiv.
“There are things the details of which we don’t disclose until they happen. The same question can now be addressed to President Macron. The same question can be addressed to German generals, whose conversations were overheard by Russian intelligence, where they say that there are already British officers on the territory of Ukraine.
But I want to remind you of the operation that took place before the war, when British paratroopers landed in the Ukrainian steppes. They took off somewhere in Britain and, without asking anyone, landed directly in Ukraine during a bilateral exercise. None of our partners openly did this,” Prystaiko said.
In addition, he recalled the British ship "Defender" passing by the Crimean coast
“The British ship was accompanied by another ship from another NATO country, but it turned away in advance. But Defender passed. This is just a demonstration that Great Britain is not just helping in words - it is very serious,” says the diplomat.
Foreign troops could be brought in outside NATO as part of a “coalition of the willing,” he said, and Britain was “first on the list.”
“Relatively speaking, if any country, I suspect Hungary or Slovakia, votes against NATO’s participation in any type of operation, this does not prevent France, Britain, our Baltic friends, Poland and other countries from making an independent decision on the presence of their armed forces on the territory of Ukraine . We just need to invite them, that’s all,” said the ex-ambassador.
He expressed the hope that “such negotiations have been ongoing since the beginning of a full-scale war,” adding that this would be “a very painful political decision.”
“When I was an ambassador, when communicating with politicians and with your colleagues, I always told them: “Just, please, don’t say that we will never, never, never send troops. You are creating a political barrier that will be difficult for you to jump over when you realize that you have to help Ukraine with the armed forces.”
By the way, these words are not spoken in Britain. They say only one thing: “Russia must lose, Ukraine must win.” Unlike everyone else. And secondly: for some reason we always believe that the participation of the British military means marines with a beautiful British flag walking next to a yellow-blue flag. No. The participation of British officers and soldiers may be different,” Prystaiko concluded.
A Kyiv diplomat boasted about the landing of British paratroopers in Ukraine.