Moscow’s ambassador has rejected the belief that Russia was behind the deadly Salisbury poisonings, saying it was ‘nonsense’.

Andrei Kelin, Russia’s ambassador to the UK, chuckled at the notion the UK, US, French, German and Canadian governments believe the Kremlin was responsible for the attack, which saw one woman killed and three others injured.

The Salisbury poisonings were a botched attempt to kill former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia at a restaurant in Salisbury in July 2018.

Two suspects are believed to have carried out the attempt using the deadly nerve agent Novichok, which was concealed in a perfume bottle.

Dawn Sturgess, 44, died after being exposed to the nerve agent later on in Amesbury, Wiltshire.

In an interview on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme, Kelin was asked by Kuenssberg about the poisonings.

Kelin responded: ‘Too many governments are involved. Do they really take advice from each other? This is nonsense, really.

‘I really don’t want to discuss it further, because it has been explicitly explained during all these years.

‘Five years has passed, we arranged a big press conference here. Many questions have been answered about that. So why drag this history and continue into this?

‘We do not really understand. The issue has been discussed, and we did have an opportunity to provide all the answers. So why now?’

Kuenssberg told the ambassador the topic was being brought up again as the public inquiry is ongoing. She added that Ms Sturgess’ family have called on Vladimir Putin to testify.

Klein responded: ‘I hardly believe President Putin will go to Britain just to testify something.’

The Metropolitan Police has identified three suspects wanted in connection with the poisonings: Denis Sergeev, Alexander Mishkin and Anatoliy Chepiga – who used the aliases Sergey Fedotov, Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov respectively while in the UK and were travelling on Russian passports.

Russia and the men have previously denied they were responsible for the attack.

A post-mortem examination found Ms Sturgess died of Novichok poisoning and witnesses are giving evidence to the ongoing public inquiry, which was set up in March 2022.

When asked if he had any words for the family of Ms Sturgess, Kelin said: ‘I have never met this family … If someone has died, of course we are concerned about that.’

Kelin also rejected calls for Boshirov and Petrov to attend the inquiry, citing an interview broadcast on Russian state TV in which the former intelligence operatives claimed they were merely only in London to view the Salisbury Cathedral as proof of their innocence.

Elsewhere in the interview, Kelin rubbished Ukrainian president Zelensky’s ‘victory plan’ against Russia in which he outlined steps to end the Russian invasion by the end of next year.

‘If Zelensky won’t negotiate with us, fine’, the ambassador said. ‘He will lose more and more terrain.’

He also claimed the UK is ‘waging war’ against Russia by supplying Ukraine with weapons.

‘My government firmly believes the UK Government is waging an aggressive war against Russia by the hands of the Ukrainians,’ he said.

‘This is a proxy war led by the United Kingdom’s Government by providing lethal weapons with which the UK Government is killing Russian soldiers and civilians.’

He added: ‘I think you are aggressive and waging a proxy war against Russia.’

When challenged on Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine,Kelin said Zelensky ‘does not want peace … he continues to ask for more and more; Nato, EU assistance, defence packages.

‘Anything, but nothing about negotiations at all.’

Among Zelensky’s proposals to end the war are a formal acceptance of Ukraine into Nato and a lifting of the ban on long-range missile strikes deep into Russia.

But Kelin said Zelensky is becoming ‘desperate’ and that the Ukrainian resistance knows they are losing and are becoming increasingly ‘feeble’.

Kyiv has steadfastly refused to negotiate with Russia throughout the conflict as they believe any attempts to do so would result in the permanent loss of Ukrainian territory.

Kelin suggested the conflict could stop if western nations agreed to stop supplying arms to Ukraine.

‘No one likes the war,’ he said. ‘But we are not just going to say, OK, [from] tomorrow we do not shoot each other. We won’t.’

‘We are in favour of the speediest solution to the conflict. But we do not feel reciprocity’.

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