<p>A senior Russian official at the United Nations on Wednesday slammed British diplomacy, just hours before Boris Johnson speaks to Vladimir Putin to try to defuse the Ukraine crisis.</p>.<p>"There is always room for diplomacy, but frankly, we don't trust British diplomacy," Dmitry Polyanskiy, deputy ambassador to the UN told Sky News in an interview.</p>.<p>"I think in recent years British diplomacy has shown that it is absolutely worthless," he added.</p>.<p>"I really don't want to offend anybody, especially my good friends, British diplomats, but really, the results are nothing to boast about."</p>.<p>Britain's prime minister visited Kyiv on Tuesday, warning that Russian forces massed on the border represented a "clear and present danger" to Ukraine.</p>.<p>Johnson was on Wednesday to talk to Putin in a delayed phone call to cool fears about the Kremlin's intent.</p>.<p>But Polyanskiy's comments, although not unsurprising given both countries have been at loggerheads for years, indicated that a breakthrough looked unpromising.</p>.<p>Tensions between London and Moscow reached their peak in 2018 when former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned in Salisbury, southern England.</p>.<p>Britain blamed Russia for the attempted murder with the weapons-grade chemical agent Novichok, and expelled dozens of Russian diplomats.</p>.<p>Polyanskiy said the West was exaggerating the number of Russian forces at the Ukraine border.</p>.<p>"Now it's already 130,000," he told Sky News. "I see that inflation is very high these days, it was 100,000 yesterday.</p>.<p>"I don't know where they take these figures from and we have absolutely no trust in the intelligence data from the US and from the UK.</p>.<p>"I think this is the same intelligence that claims that Saddam Hussein possesses the weapons of mass destruction," he added.</p>.<p>"The hysteria doesn't stop, it's absolutely happening in the heads of Western politicians and not really on the ground."</p>.<p>Putin on Tuesday accused the West of ignoring Moscow's security concerns and of using Ukraine as a tool to contain Russia, though he said he hoped a solution could be found to end spiralling tensions.</p>.<p>Putin said the Kremlin was studying a response from Washington and NATO to Moscow's security demands, but that it had been far from adequate.</p>.<p><strong>Watch latest videos by DH here:</strong></p>
<p>A senior Russian official at the United Nations on Wednesday slammed British diplomacy, just hours before Boris Johnson speaks to Vladimir Putin to try to defuse the Ukraine crisis.</p>.<p>"There is always room for diplomacy, but frankly, we don't trust British diplomacy," Dmitry Polyanskiy, deputy ambassador to the UN told Sky News in an interview.</p>.<p>"I think in recent years British diplomacy has shown that it is absolutely worthless," he added.</p>.<p>"I really don't want to offend anybody, especially my good friends, British diplomats, but really, the results are nothing to boast about."</p>.<p>Britain's prime minister visited Kyiv on Tuesday, warning that Russian forces massed on the border represented a "clear and present danger" to Ukraine.</p>.<p>Johnson was on Wednesday to talk to Putin in a delayed phone call to cool fears about the Kremlin's intent.</p>.<p>But Polyanskiy's comments, although not unsurprising given both countries have been at loggerheads for years, indicated that a breakthrough looked unpromising.</p>.<p>Tensions between London and Moscow reached their peak in 2018 when former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned in Salisbury, southern England.</p>.<p>Britain blamed Russia for the attempted murder with the weapons-grade chemical agent Novichok, and expelled dozens of Russian diplomats.</p>.<p>Polyanskiy said the West was exaggerating the number of Russian forces at the Ukraine border.</p>.<p>"Now it's already 130,000," he told Sky News. "I see that inflation is very high these days, it was 100,000 yesterday.</p>.<p>"I don't know where they take these figures from and we have absolutely no trust in the intelligence data from the US and from the UK.</p>.<p>"I think this is the same intelligence that claims that Saddam Hussein possesses the weapons of mass destruction," he added.</p>.<p>"The hysteria doesn't stop, it's absolutely happening in the heads of Western politicians and not really on the ground."</p>.<p>Putin on Tuesday accused the West of ignoring Moscow's security concerns and of using Ukraine as a tool to contain Russia, though he said he hoped a solution could be found to end spiralling tensions.</p>.<p>Putin said the Kremlin was studying a response from Washington and NATO to Moscow's security demands, but that it had been far from adequate.</p>.<p><strong>Watch latest videos by DH here:</strong></p>