LONDON, February 9. /TASS/. UK Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs Liz Truss will fly to Moscow on Wednesday for a two-day trip to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and urge the Kremlin to de-escalate and desist its aggression against Ukraine, according to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

"The UK is determined to stand up for freedom and democracy in Ukraine. I’m visiting Moscow to urge Russia to pursue a diplomatic solution and make clear that another Russian invasion of a sovereign state would bring massive consequences for all involved," UK Foreign Secretary noted.

Truss also pointed out that "Russia should be in no doubt about the strength of our response." "We have said many times that any further invasion would incur severe costs, including through a coordinated package of sanctions. Russia has a choice here. We strongly encourage them to engage, de-escalate and choose the path of diplomacy," she emphasized.

During her visit, Truss will call on Russia to abide by the international agreements it has already signed up to, including the OSCE Helsinki Final Act, Minsk Protocols, and the Budapest memorandum, according to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

While in Moscow, the Foreign Secretary will also visit Moscow State University, where she will attend physics and math classes, which are building a generation of future science leaders - a shared interest between Russia and the UK.

No sign of constructiveness

Ahead of the visit, Russian Ambassador to the UK Andrey Kelin recommended that Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and Secretary of State for Defense Ben Wallace, who was also going to fly to Moscow, refrain from threatening Russia with sanctions, otherwise, the talks would be short.

"I don’t see any signs that the UK is trying to bring some constructiveness to the talks on the proposals on security guarantees. If it puts forward ideas of how to respond to our proposals constructively, then we certainly will be interested in such a conversation. But if it is going to threaten us, it can keep doing this on Twitter," the Russian diplomat told TASS, noting that there was no need to travel to Moscow for this.

Recently, Truss has posted numerous harsh statements about Russia on her Twitter. Among other things, the Foreign Secretary accused Moscow of making false statements that it had no plans to invade Ukraine. She also blamed Russian authorities for allegedly plotting a false-flag attack on Donbass by Kiev’s forces to justify aggression against Ukraine, threatening Moscow with the toughest sanctions ever.

Concerns over Moscow’s alleged preparations for an invasion of Ukraine have been increasingly announced in the West and in Kiev recently. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov castigated these statements as an empty and groundless escalation of tension, emphasizing that Russia posed no threat to anyone. At the same time, the Kremlin press secretary did not exclude some possible provocations to justify such claims and warned that the attempts to resolve the Ukrainian conflict by force would carry extremely serious consequences.