MOSCOW, January 26. /TASS/. Once the deliveries of tanks to the Kiev regime begin, Western countries will move to a new level of confrontation with Russia, head of Russia’s delegation to the Vienna talks on military security and arms control Konstantin Gavrilov told the Rossiya-24 TV channel on Thursday.

"Earlier, here, on the negotiating track, we were dealing with the issues of small arms, that is, preventing these arms from ending up in conflict zones and so on, the control of portable air defense systems. Documents were developed but now they all have been practically set aside, the West is simply not complying with them and indeed is moving to a new level," he said, commenting on statements by Western countries on delivering tanks to Ukraine.

On Wednesday, the US announced its plans to supply Kiev with 31 M1 Abrams ranks. The German government confirmed that it would send 14 Leopard 2 tanks from the stockpile of Germany’s military to Ukraine and issue permits to other countries for their re-export. On Wednesday, the defense ministries of Norway and Slovakia announced their plans to give tanks to Kiev. Earlier, the authorities of the UK, Poland and France said they would send their tanks to Ukraine.

Russian Ambassador to Germany Sergey Nechaev called Berlin's decision to send tanks to the Kiev regime "highly dangerous." According to him, it "takes the conflict to a new level of confrontation." The diplomat noted that Berlin’s choice indicates "Germany’s final refusal to acknowledge historical responsibility" for the timeless crimes of Nazism during the Great Patriotic War. He added that the "difficult path of post-war reconciliation between Russians and Germans" was being abandoned.