MOSCOW, February 9. /TASS/. The issue of potentially deploying US THAAD anti-ballistic missile defense systems in Ukraine should be directly addressed to Kiev and Washington, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.
"I believe that this issue should be, first and foremost, addressed to the countries mentioned in the report - the United States and Ukraine. Let them give their official versions of the developments and then we will comment on that," the Russian diplomat said at a briefing, responding to a corresponding question from TASS.
"As for beefing up Ukraine with armaments of all types, from instructors, militants, weapons deliveries, combat gear to other types of equipment, we clearly define this as beefing it up with weapons, which is destabilizing the situation inside Ukraine as well, fails to contribute to settling the intra-Ukrainian crisis and creates tension on the European continent," the spokeswoman said.
A diplomatic source told TASS on February 7 that Kiev had requested Washington to deploy several battalions of THAAD missile defense systems near Kharkov. As Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, the deployment of these missile systems in Ukraine will be yet another step towards destabilizing the situation.
The THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) interceptor is a road-mobile surface-to-air missile system designed to intercept short-, medium-and intermediate-range ballistic missiles in the endo-or exo-atmosphere in their terminal flight path at the last minute of approaching the target.