SEOUL, April 24. /TASS/. Russia views the very admission by South Korea that it could potentially supply weapons to Kiev as an extension of Seoul’s unfriendly policy regarding the situation surrounding Ukraine, Russian Ambassador to Seoul Andrey Kulik said in an interview with the Mindle News outlet.
"Since the start of the special operation in Ukraine, South Korea has been maintaining a rather unfriendly position. [Russia] believes that the fact that the issue of potential [weapons] supplies was raised at all is a reflection of this unfriendly stance," the media outlet quoted the envoy as saying.
The diplomat pointed out that Russia’s armed forces targeted only military facilities. "South Korea and Western countries keep ignoring mass civilian killings, which have been going on in the Donbass since 2014," the ambassador said.
South Korea "understands well" what consequences any move on its part to join those countries now providing military assistance to Ukraine would have for bilateral relations, Kulik went on to say. He also reiterated that Moscow might have to reconsider cooperating with Seoul on issues facing the Korean Peninsula.
When assessing the situation in the region following the coming to power of a new government in South Korea, the ambassador said that military and political tensions were continuing to escalate. "The situation is the result of the United States’ refusal to resolve issues related to the Korean Peninsula through diplomatic and political means," the diplomat stated. He slammed sanctions and pressure as a dead-end path and called on the parties to resume the implementation of the agreements reached in Singapore in 2018.
The Russian diplomat admitted that foreign companies, including South Korean ones, were dealing with problems in trade with Russia but those problems stemmed from the sanctions imposed by Western countries and not from any steps taken by the Russian government. "We welcome the position of those South Korean corporations that stood their ground, unlike Western companies that abruptly left the Russian market after the launch of the special military operation," Kulik said.
Meanwhile, the envoy stated that Russia had not taken any retaliatory measures with respect to the South Korean president’s remark about the possibility of weapons supplies. "No retaliatory measures have been taken because no weapons supplies have taken place yet," the media outlet quoted the ambassador as saying. "The Russian authorities do not take any hostile retaliatory measures toward companies. Russia only takes measures to reduce the damage from Western sanctions. Such measures can impact companies," the envoy said. He stressed that Russia maintained an open position and was ready for dialogue to mitigate the problems that South Korean companies were facing.