All news

Russian diplomat warns against weapons supplies to Ukraine

The US defense secretary earlier said Washington plans to expand cooperation with Ukraine in the military sphere

MOSCOW, September 26./TASS/. The US decision to supply weapons to Ukraine will only add fuel to the fire, and Washington is well aware of this, the director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s department for issues of non-proliferation and arms control, Mikhail Ulyanov, told a news conference on Tuesday.

"This decision will be equal to an attempt to add fuel to the fire," the diplomat said. "I think that even in the US administration many people understand this. That is why such supplies have not been made as of yet," he added.

"If the US changes policy on this trajectory, this can be fraught with a serious escalation for no reason at all. Nothing that goes on in Ukraine necessitates at least the slightest need for such dangerous moves," he stressed.

At the end of August, U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis said at a news conference he addressed together with Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko that the U.S. would expand cooperation with Ukraine in the military sphere and therefore it would consider possible supplies of lethal weapons.

He said he would inform the Ukrainian leadership on the details of recommendations to the U.S. Administration.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier the possible supplies of lethal weapons would not change the situation in eastern Ukraine, which is plagued by an armed civil conflict, but would propel the number of victims there.