WASHINGTON, April 18. /TASS/. US Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl effectively admitted Monday that the US Administration carries out a provocative course towards Moscow in Ukraine, Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov said, commenting on Kahl’s remarks regarding the risks of escalation of the Ukrainian conflict.
"The official’s considerations are full of shamelessness, hypocrisy and are saturated with arrogance towards out country. The Pentagon representative said it directly that the US Administration did not restrain itself in any way because of potential escalation risks when shipping weapons to Ukraine. Thus, the American admitted that Washington has been deliberately carrying out a provocative course towards Russia throughout the conflict," Antonov said, according to the embassy’s press office.
"[Washington] handed over to the Kiev regime increasingly deadly and long-range systems that have purely offensive, not defensive, purpose," he added.
The envoy noted that he does not believe "the military official’s words that the US expressed concerns over the use of US-made weapons for strikes deep inside Russian territory."
"If the US truly took this most important aspect into consideration, it would have immediately thwarted such attempts of Ukrainian radicals. In reality, though, the unprecedented aid and enabling from the [US] Administration only push the agents in Kiev towards new crimes," Antonov pointed out.
He added that Kahl’s statements are an "eloquent testimony that it was Washington who ‘inspired’ the standoff in Ukraine."
"In its desire to inflict a defeat on us, they forget literally about everything, and, most importantly - about the fate of the Ukrainian people and the risks of a global conflict," the envoy concluded.
Earlier, Kahl said in an interview for Foreign Policy that the US expressed its concerns over the use of weapons, shipped by Washington to Kiev, for strikes on Russian territory, and is not interested in getting directly involved in the conflict in Ukraine, as well as in the conflict escalating into World War III. Meanwhile, the Pentagon representative said, the opinion that the US restrains itself on a number of issues due to fear of escalation is wrong.