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A senior ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned the United Kingdom that deploying ground troops to Ukraine would be tantamount to declaring war on Russia.
Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, took aim at the country in a post on Friday on X as British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak arrived in Kiev to announce a major funding package for Ukraine.
The United Kingdom will provide about $3.2 billion in military aid to Ukraine next year, the largest annual commitment since the Russian invasion nearly two years ago.
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Medvedev, who served as Russian president from 2008 to 2012, also posited a hypothetical situation in which Sunak would come under military fire during his stay in the Ukrainian capital.
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Dmitry Medvedev, a senior Russian official and ally of President Vladimir Putin, left, and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. (Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images | Viktor Kovalchuk/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
“British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has arrived in Kiev to sign a 'historic agreement on security cooperation between Britain and Ukraine,'” Medvedev wrote.
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“What would [the] The Western public says if the British representatives happened to be bombed with cluster munitions in the center of Kiev, just as our innocent civilians were in Belgorod?”
Medvedev was referring to a Dec. 30 attack on Russian civilians in the city of Belgorod in southern Russia near the Ukrainian border that killed at least 20 people, including two children, and wounded 111 in what he called an “indiscriminate” Ukrainian attack with cluster bombs.
Medvedev then warned the United Kingdom about the possible deployment of a military contingent in Ukraine.
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British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (center) and Vice Chief of Defense Staff Major General Gwyn Jenkins (left) are seen on a train traveling through Ukraine on Friday. (Stefan Rousseau/PA Images via Getty Images)
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“And I also hope that our arch-enemies, the impudent British, understand that the official stationing of their troops in Ukraine would mean a declaration of war on our country,” Medvedev wrote.
Ukrainian news agency RBC-Ukraine quoted unnamed sources as saying that Ukrainian forces had directed fire at military targets in Belgorod in response to the massive Russian bombing of Ukrainian cities the previous day.
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On Friday, Sunak said Britain would “not waver” in its commitment to helping Ukrainian forces withstand Putin’s all-out invasion.
Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to Russian Transport Minister Vitaly Savelyev during their meeting in Moscow in March 2023. (Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
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“Today we are going one step further – increasing our military aid, delivering thousands of state-of-the-art drones and signing a historic new security agreement to give Ukraine the long-term assurances it needs,” Sunak said.
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Ukraine and Russia are trying to replenish their arsenals this year in anticipation of possible major ground offensives in 2025, according to military analysts.
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Portal contributed to this report.