The Foreign Ministry of Russia said that Ukraine and Britain “had no room” for cooperation in the Sea of Azov, commenting on a new 100-year partnership agreement between Kyiv and London the two countries’ leaders announced on Thursday.
The Kremlin said that any placement of British military assets in Ukraine under the new agreement would be of concern to Moscow, in particular in the Sea of Azov, which Russia considers its own, and the ministry echoed those remarks.
“Any claims to this water area are a gross interference in the internal affairs of our country and will be firmly resisted,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a comment posted on the ministry’s website.
The Azov Sea is bordered by southwest Russia, parts of southern Ukraine that Russia has seized in the war, and the Crimean peninsula that Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Zakharova said the agreement itself was “worthless” for Russia, calling it “just another PR campaign” of Ukraine. Zakharova described the Sea of Azov as Russia’s “internal sea”.
British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer pledged on Thursday to work with Ukraine and allies on robust security guarantees if a ceasefire is negotiated with Russia, offering more support to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy with a 100-year partnership deal.
The agreement, announced in Kyiv during Starmer’s first visit as prime minister, covered several areas, including boosting military cooperation to strengthen security in the Baltic Sea, Black Sea and Sea of Azov.
NATO will not heed to Donald Trump’s proposal for a massive hike in defence spending but will likely agree to go beyond its current 2% target, according to officials and analysts.
The U.S. president-elect declared in December that members of the military alliance should spend 5% of gross domestic product (GDP) on defence – a huge increase from the current 2% goal and a level that no NATO country, including the United States, currently reaches.
Trump’s comments – at a press conference that also generated a blizzard of headlines on Greenland, Canada and Panama – were a reminder of his focus on NATO spending during his first term and his threats not to protect allies that fail to meet the target.
Officials from NATO countries said they agreed defence spending needs to rise further but did not endorse the 5% figure, which analysts said would be politically and economically impossible for almost all members. It would require hundreds of billions of dollars in extra funding.
Team Bharatshakti
(With inputs from Reuters)
