MOSCOW, November 11. /TASS/. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday he would not comment on US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo’s remarks that the United States had provided Ukraine with weapons to "fight against the Russians."
"This [should be referred] to the Russian Foreign Ministry," the spokesman said, when asked by TASS whether those remarks revealed Washington’s destructive role in the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis.
In an interview with the WCSC-TV channel, the US top diplomat said the incumbent administration provided Ukraine with weapons so that "they could fight against the Russians." The transcript of the interview was released by the Department of State earlier on Monday.
"And then this President wanted to make sure, too, that [Russian President] Vladimir Putin wouldn’t be able to inflict hardship on the people of Ukraine, so we provided defensive weapons systems to the people of Ukraine. The previous administration [led by ex-president Barack Obama] chose not to do that. They chose to provide blankets. We gave them [the Kiev government] real weapons, where they could fight against the Russians. I am proud of what the administration did with its Ukraine policy," Pompeo said.