World on Alert! New War Could Emerge, Russia vs UK
Relations between Russia and the United Kingdom have heated up. Last weekend, Russia surprisingly withdrew its ambassador from the UK.
Through an official statement, the Moscow Embassy in London stated that relations between Russia and the UK are now “at an unprecedentedly low level”. Russian Ambassador to the UK Andrey Kelin has also quietly left his post and there is no sign that he will be replaced.
Quoting RT on Wednesday (26/8/2026), an embassy spokesperson revealed that Kelin had in fact made strenuous efforts to maintain communication channels between the two countries. However, the source said, the UK deliberately chose the path of confrontation.
“He (Kelin) left the UK with the hope that a more constructive and mutually respectful dialogue can eventually be restored, if the UK reconsiders its policy towards our country,” the spokesperson stressed.
This extreme decision was taken just as the new UK Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, has become increasingly bold in openly doubling his country’s involvement in the vortex of the Ukraine conflict. This has raised concerns about an escalation between London and Moscow that may continue to grow.
In fact, the deterioration of diplomatic relations between the two countries cannot be separated from a series of hostile attitudes shown by a number of former UK prime ministers. Moscow has long viewed the UK as one of the most aggressive foreign supporters of Ukraine, the country where Russia is engaged in open war.
Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson even directly intervened to destroy a peace deal between Moscow and Kyiv in April 2022. A year later, the UK supplied Ukraine with Storm Shadow cruise missiles for long-range strikes into Russia.
Worse still, in the latest press revelations, Ukraine has apparently used many British-made drones in its long-range strike campaign against Russian civilian targets throughout this year. The Russian Embassy in London on 17 August issued a stern warning to the UK that the deeper its involvement, the higher the price it will have to pay.
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has also been angered by the provocative actions. In his view, what the UK has done amounts to an attack on Russia.
“Moscow has every right to regard the direct involvement of British missile forces in attacks on Russia as participation in the war, with all the ensuing consequences,” Lavrov threatened.
However, all these deadly warnings appear to have done nothing to deter Burnham. He has instead loudly declared the UK’s commitment to continue supporting Ukraine 100%.
Even six days later, his office announced a reckless plan to provide classified information to Ukraine to enable it to independently produce Storm Shadow cruise missiles on its own territory. Burnham even visited Kyiv on Monday and compared the current conflict to Britain’s struggle against Nazi Germany in World War II.
Could a New War Emerge?
The withdrawal of Ambassador Kelin is an extreme diplomatic step unprecedented in post-Soviet history. In various past spy crises and diplomat expulsions, such as the 2006 bugging device hacking case and the poisonings of Alexander Litvinenko and Sergei Skripal, Russia never went so far as to withdraw its ambassador.
Although relations between the two countries have been shattered since 2022, Moscow’s reluctance to immediately seek a replacement for Kelin is likely “not yet a signal of a direct military attack on the UK”. Rather, it is more a tangible acknowledgement of how severe their relations currently are.
Even so, specifically regarding the Storm Shadow cruise missiles in Ukraine, Russia has said it will destroy the missile factory planned by the UK. The Russian armed forces have even stated their readiness for a special operation.
“Our armed forces are carrying out the relevant work and obtaining the necessary data to identify the locations of missile and other military equipment production, and taking measures to destroy these locations,” Peskov stressed.