British MPs call for stop to Ukraine escalation

A group of senior UK lawmakers and public figures have urged Washington and London to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict

Several British politicians have urged the US and the UK to halt the escalation in Ukraine after Kiev received authorization to use Western long-range missiles to attack targets inside Russia’s internationally recognized borders.

Last week, in response to Ukraine’s attacks on Russia’s Bryansk and Kursk regions using US-made ATACMS missiles and British-supplied Storm Shadows, Moscow deployed its brand-new hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missile. The weapon, which is capable of carrying nuclear warheads, was used against a Ukrainian military industrial facility in the city of Dnepropetrovsk.

The latest developments have caused great concern, a group of British MPs and public figures, including former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, said in an open letter published by The Guardian on Tuesday. “This rapid escalation seriously threatens an all-out military confrontation with Russia and NATO,” they stressed. 

“The risk of a nuclear attack cannot be ruled out,” the group warned, calling on outgoing US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer to de-escalate the conflict and commit to peace by securing talks with Russia and Ukraine.

“The British government has to take responsibility for its actions and these terrible consequences. With hundreds of thousands already killed and injured, securing an end to this horrific conflict is crucial,” the group wrote. They stressed that “diplomacy and dialogue, not military escalation, are the only viable paths to a peaceful settlement in the region.”

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On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov noted that a political and diplomatic settlement of the Ukraine conflict is “still a very long way off,” judging by the current situation on the battlefield.

The diplomat said that recent “escalatory steps” by the US and its allies, such as granting Kiev permission to use Western long-range missiles against Russian territories, suggested that the West was still “obsessed with the idea of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia.”

He recalled that Russian President Vladimir Putin has already warned that Moscow would respond to such moves, adding that “all those responsible for causing damage to Russian citizens and infrastructure will receive the punishment they deserve.”

Lavrov also noted that any diplomatic solution that could potentially be achieved between Russia and Ukraine would inevitably have to involve the eradication of “the root causes of the conflict,” such as NATO’s continued expansion and the “systematic” violations of the rights of Russian speakers in Ukraine by its government.