WASHINGTON, March 20. /TASS/. The United States is trying to involve Latin American countries in the transfer of Russian weapons to Ukraine, the Russian embassy in Washington said.

The embassy drew attention to the anti-Russian statements of Laura Richardson, the head of the US Southern Command. "The administration again unfairly accuses Russia of all sins. In its usual mentoring manner, it tries to tell independent Latin American countries who to be friends with. It cannot accept the desire of the governments of the continent to strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation with the Russian Federation," the embassy said in a statement.

"It is obvious that Washington is trying to ‘pull over’ the neutral Global South to its side and involve Latin American capitals in its gamble to transfer Russian weapons to Ukraine in exchange for supposedly ‘more advanced’ American weapons," the Russian embassy emphasized. "It is suprising to hear such bravado when the vaunted Abrams tanks and dozens of tons of other equipment have already been destroyed in the special military operation zone," the diplomats pointed out.

"We urge the administration to stop treating Latin American and Caribbean states as its own ‘backyard’," the Russian embassy said. "It is time for the United States to accept that the region is making independent decisions, including on strengthening mutually beneficial ties with Russia," the diplomats underscored.

Earlier on Tuesday, Laura Richardson, the head of the US Southern Command, speaking at the Washington-based Atlantic Council (an organization recognized as undesirable in Russia), said that Latin American countries, which Washington is asking to transfer Russian military equipment to Ukraine in exchange for US arms, take into account their economic ties with Russia and existing agreements in the military-technical sphere.