SEOUL, April 19. /TASS/. The Russian embassy in the Republic of Korea has warned Seoul about the potential negative consequences of transferring lethal weapons to Ukraine. This step would ruin bilateral relations, Russian diplomats warned on Wednesday.
"The South Korean side is well aware of the inevitable negative consequences if they eventually decide to join the group of ‘military sponsors’ of the Kiev regime and supply it with lethal weapons. Such a step would definitely ruin Russian-South Korean relations, which have been developing fruitfully over the past three decades," the embassy said in a message on its Telegram channel, pointing to the fact that this comment was made to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
The embassy added that it was "closely monitoring" the position of the Republic of Korea on the issue. In addition, the diplomats pointed out that the decision to supply Kiev with lethal weapons would lead to "negative consequences" for security cooperation with Moscow on the Korean Peninsula. "We count on the responsible approach of the leadership of the Republic of Korea," the embassy said.
The diplomats reiterated that the weapons transferred by the "collective West" were being used to destroy "peaceful civilians, including women and children, of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, as well as of the Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions." According to the embassy, Western arms, due to corruption in Ukraine, are used in other regional conflicts and fall into the hands of organized crime groups, terrorists and extremists.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol told Reuters in an interview, published on Wednesday, that he did not rule out that Seoul may supply weapons to Ukraine in case of a serious threat to the civilian population of the country or if the rules of war were flagrantly violated.