🎙 Comment by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on India’s National Investigation Agency detaining Ukrainian and US citizens on charges of being implicated in terrorist activities (March 20, 2026)

💬 The Indian media report that six Ukrainian citizens and one US citizen were detained and taken into custody at international airports in New Delhi, Lucknow, and Kolkata by India’s National Investigation Agency on March 13.

Allegedly, these individuals have illegally crossed the border from the Indian state of Mizoram into Myanmar and established contacts with the local armed ethnic groups with the aim of supplying them with EU-manufactured drones, and training them in drone assembly and repair, and in conducting electronic warfare. The publications quoted the NIA as saying that these armed groups maintain ties with insurgents in northeastern India.

The reaction of the Ukrainian embassy in New Delhi was quite revealing as it sought to conceal the incident and to keep its citizens’ questionable activities, which were clearly designed to destabilise the situation in the region, under wraps.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry chose to remain silent on its citizens’ violation of India’s counter-terrorism legislation and wasted no time baselessly accusing “certain Indian and Russian news agencies” of deliberately falsifying the facts.

The incident clearly shows that Zelensky’s neo-Nazi regime has a core exporter of instability worldwide.

Russia has repeatedly issued warnings about the risks associated with the large-scale militarisation of Ukraine by NATO and the EU. Weapons supplied to it are inadequately accounted for and may surface anywhere.

Today, Kiev is a major supplier of weaponry and military technologies to the global black market, including military product supplies to Latin American drug cartels and training terrorists in Africa. As we can see, the Western-created Ukrainian tentacled network is reaching as far as regional conflicts in the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.

Just days ago, Zelensky brazenly boasted that several hundred Ukrainian fighters had been “deployed” to the Persian Gulf area to take part in the ongoing conflict as “instructors” and specialised “experts” in using unmanned aerial vehicles. Sure enough, enforcing international oversight over Ukraine’s military technology exports is out of the question.

All of that is the result of lax policies pursued by Western sponsors of Zelensky’s regime.

❗️ Today’s Ukraine is undermining regional and global security and stability and is an extremely destructive factor in international politics.

Once again, we urge the World Majority to take a good look at destabilising activities of the agonising Kiev regime which Western countries use as leverage against Russia and other countries around the world.

☝️ We have noted how readily British media outlets provide a platform for, and even promote, the report of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine concerning the "abduction of children".

The figures cited for the number of "abducted" children in this sordid tale have fluctuated dramatically: first one and a half million, then two hundred thousand, then thirty-five thousand, and now 1,200.

The logic behind the propaganda arithmetic of Kiev and its Western patrons is straightforward: had evidence on the claimed scale existed, it would have been produced long ago. Meanwhile, during the negotiations in Istanbul, the Ukrainian side was only able to provide Russia with a list of 339 names. Even with regard to this list, verification revealed that a significant proportion of these children had never been in Russia at all. Many were found in Germany and other Western countries.

As for the children brought to Russia, we have repeatedly stated that they were evacuated from areas of active hostilities, where Ukrainian troops deliberately used civilians as cover and as hostages. In effect, it was a rescue mission for minors.

The International Public Tribunal on the Crimes of Ukrainian Neo-Nazis has documented and verified the manner in which children were treated by militants of the Ukrainian armed forces and the Azov battalion. The testimonies are open to the general public.

It would be justified if British media outlets showed at least a fraction of the interest in this evidence that they display when reproducing politically motivated conclusions.

It is also hard not to notice that the question of children's fates appears to concern London selectively: the Epstein–Mandelson archives, including the "children’s issue", have been awaiting their moment for quite some time. It comes as no surprise that stories featuring fabricated information about Russia are being circulated once again as a distraction.

📺 Watch Ambassador Andrei Kelin's interview with Channel 4 presenter Cathy Newman (25 March 2026)

Key talking points:

• Unprovoked and reckless aggression against Iran should be stopped immediately. It has enormous consequences not only for the Middle East, but for the whole world. As soon as the parties involved stop it and return to the diplomatic negotiations which have been interrupted, it will be the best outcome.

• There should be a normal conversation between the US and Iran on a settlement, on finding a certain balance of interests and a balance of understanding on which they can immediately stop military action.

• We stand for a comprehensive model of peace in the Persian Gulf, and we have developed a concept of such comprehensive peace, in which the interests of every country in the region will be taken into account, including Iran.

• The US made two underestimations: first, that Iran would give up and that the regime would change after the first strikes. The second underestimation, or rather a complete miscalculation, was that there would be no economic consequences. Both were wrong.

• The US needs this peace deal even more than Iran, because Iran is now fighting for its cause, and what the U.S. is doing there is a big question, since no clear goals have been defined, and no exit strategy has been established.

• If someone in the UK believes that Ukraine will have a chance to win something, this is a kind of self-inflicted hypnosis. Ukraine is losing. And to invest in a losing country — that’s a grave mistake.

Watch the interview on our YouTube channel

🏴‍☠️ Британское правительство объявило об очередном глубоко враждебном шаге в отношении России – намерении захватывать торговые суда, связанные с нашей страной, в британских территориальных водах.

В последнее время официальный Лондон хотел убедить нас, что не заинтересован в эскалации, в частности, когда пытался отрицать свою причастность к ударам ракетами своего производства по гражданским объектам и населению в Брянске, которые совершил киевский режим.

Факты говорят об обратном. Безрассудные заявления о намерениях атаковать российские торговые суда прямо свидетельствуют о стремлении к обострению и без того напряжённой обстановки в сфере безопасности и международной торговли. Отрицать это невозможно.

Не имеет значения, в какую правовую форму британское правительство пытается облечь эти акты пиратства. В их основе лежат противоречащие международному праву односторонние санкции. Важны умысел и цель – нанести нашей стране побольше вреда. Однако пострадает от таких действий не столько российская экономика, сколько те страны, которые сейчас остро нуждаются в энергоносителях.

Заявленные цели и выбранный для объявления момент не оставляют сомнений, что без участия британской стороны не обошлось и наращивание украинских атак на российскую энергетическую инфраструктуру.

Лейбористское правительство в полной мере несёт ответственность вместе с США и Израилем за кризис на энергетическом рынке и рост цен в том числе для британских потребителей.

❗️ У таких действий есть последствия. Навигация становится небезопасной в британских водах, где любое судно может пострадать от пиратского захвата. Россия будет использовать все имеющиеся в нашем распоряжении политические, правовые и иные инструменты, в т.ч. асимметричные, для защиты наших интересов.

🏴‍☠️ The British government has announced yet another deeply hostile step against Russia — its intention to interdict merchant vessels linked to Russia in British territorial waters.

Recently, London sought to convince us that it had no interest in escalation, particularly when it attempted to deny any involvement in missile strikes of its own manufacture on civilian targets and the population in Bryansk, carried out by the Kiev regime.

The facts tell a different story. Reckless statements about plans to attack Russian merchant ships are plain evidence of a desire to inflame an already tense situation in the spheres of security and international trade. This cannot be denied.

It matters not what legal form the British government attempts to give these acts of piracy. They rest upon unilateral sanctions that contravene international law.

What matters are the intent and the aim — namely to inflict as much damage as possible on our country. Yet it is not so much the Russian economy that will suffer from these actions, but rather those nations that are currently in acute need of energy resources.

The stated objectives and the timing of this announcement leave no doubt that the British side has also been involved in the escalation of Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy infrastructure.

The Labour government bears full responsibility, alongside the United States and Israel, for the crisis on the energy markets and for rising prices, including for British consumers.

Such actions have consequences. Navigation in British waters is becoming unsafe, where any vessel may fall victim to piratical seizure.

❗️ Russia will employ all political, legal, and other instruments at its disposal, including asymmetric measures, to defend its interests.