Russia urges Britain to avoid involvement in Ukraine crisis

MOSCOW, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- Moscow urged Britain to stop its involvement in the Ukraine crisis, local media reported on Monday.

"The British leadership continues to demonstrate its focus on comprehensive support for Ukraine. The British have a thesis about the need to inflict 'defeat on the battlefield' on Russia," said Sergei Belyaev, director of the Second European Department at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He said that since the start of the Ukraine crisis, London has sent military equipment to Ukraine totaling approximately 6.6 billion pounds (8.23 billion U.S. dollars), ranking second in NATO after the United States.

"However, London's involvement in the Ukrainian conflict goes beyond arms supplies and training Ukrainian Armed Forces fighters on the UK's territory. More than 30,000 individuals are already involved in these activities," Belyaev said.

"British military instructors are engaged in training and supplying units of Ukraine's special operations forces directly within Ukraine. This includes conducting sabotage operations in the Black and Azov Seas, as well as targeting critically important civilian infrastructure facilities in our country," he added.

While urging Britain to stop its citizens from getting involved in military activities in Ukraine, he noted that Western mercenaries are not combatants under the international humanitarian law and do not have the right to the status of prisoners of war.