Ukraine must strike a peace deal with Russia or face "slipping down this hill" to ruin, the Kremlin has warned.
Andrei Kelin, Russia's ambassador to London, issued the threat in an interview with Reuters in his London residence where Winston Churchill used to discuss World War Two strategy with Josef Stalin's ambassador.
"Of course it is difficult to predict the withdrawal of our forces from the southern part of Ukraine because we have already experience that after withdrawal, provocations start and all the people are being shot and all that," he said.
Sooner or later, Mr Kelin added, Ukraine would have to decide: strike a peace deal with Russia or "continue slipping down this hill" to ruin.
Earlier, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, was heckled with shouts of “When will you stop the war“ and “Why don’t you stop the war“ at a G20 meeting.
Host Indonesia has urged the global gathering to help end the conflict in Ukraine, but Mr Lavrov used the summit to dismiss what he cast as the west’s “frenzied” criticism of the war.
