MOSCOW, December 7. /TASS/. The United States is announcing plans to produce munitions in Ukraine in order to deflect attention away from the US Senate’s failure to approve a bill calling for more aid for Kiev, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Sputnik Radio.

"There have been reports that the [United] States has decided to start manufacturing ammunition on Ukrainian soil, in this way developing the Ukrainian defense industry and so on. This is clearly an attempt to tip the scale [of media attention] away from the [Biden administration’s embarrassing] failure in the Senate [to get additional Ukraine aid passed]," she said. Otherwise, the Russian diplomat surmised, without the US signaling its further support for Kiev, the increasingly desperate military mobilization campaign in Ukraine will grind to a halt and protestors may even storm Bankovaya Street in Kiev, site of the Ukrainian presidential office, "in five minutes flat," she added, "because they’re finally getting it, that they’ve been sold down the river."

According to Zakharova, "thanks to bogus stories alleging that the defense sector will push on, that munitions will be produced and that the production of tanks, aircraft or spacecraft will be set up virtually in the next three days, the people [of Ukraine] are still being kept on this needle [of hopium]."

News emerged earlier that a bill to allocate $106 bln in additional budget funds, including $61 bln in aid for Ukraine, had failed to pass a procedural vote in the US Senate. The senators voted whether to begin formal debate on the bill, which would have commenced had the initiative been supported by 60 lawmakers, but in the event only 49 voted in favor, with 51 voting against.