‘Puppet regime’ in Ukraine!

Russia will face severe economic sanctions if it installs a puppet regime in Ukraine, a senior UK minister said yesterday after Britain accused the Kremlin of seeking to install a pro-Russian leader there. 

Britain made the accusation late on Saturday, also saying Russian intelligence officers had been in contact with a number of former Ukrainian politicians as part of plans for an invasion.

The Russian Foreign Ministry dismissed the comments as "disinformation", accusing Britain and Nato of "escalating tensions" over Ukraine.

Mykhailo Podolyak, a Ukrainian adviser to the presidential office, said the allegations should be taken seriously.

"There'll be very serious consequences if Russia takes this move to try and invade but also install a puppet regime," British Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab told Sky News yesterday.

The British accusations, first made in a statement late on Saturday by the foreign ministry, come at a time of high tensions between Russia and the West over Russia's massing of troops near its border with Ukraine. Moscow has insisted it has no plans to invade.

The foreign ministry said it had information the Russian government was considering former Ukrainian lawmaker Yevhen Murayev as a potential candidate to head a pro-Russian leadership.

The British foreign ministry declined to provide evidence to back its accusations.

The British claims came after the top US and Russian diplomats failed on Friday to make a major breakthrough in talks to resolve the crisis over Ukraine, although they agreed to keep talking.

Russia has made security demands on the United States including a halt to Nato's eastward expansion and a pledge that Ukraine will never be allowed to join the Western military alliance.

Meanwhile, Germany's new government was facing pressure to get tough on Russia, after a German navy chief's pro-Moscow remarks angered Kyiv.

The spat was triggered by German navy chief Kay-Achim Schoenbach's musings that it was "nonsense" to think Russia was about to march on Ukraine and that President Vladimir Putin deserves respect.

In New Delhi, Schoenbach, speaking in English, said Putin seeks to be treated as an equal by the West. Schoenbach resigned late Saturday but the damage was done.