MOSCOW, August 19. /TASS/. Moscow has repeatedly warned Washington that the United States’ growing involvement in resistance to the special military operation in Ukraine is putting it on the brink of becoming a party to the conflict, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov has said.

"We did not just warn, we repeatedly sent official signals to Washington, including official notes, conversations and demarches, to warn that the United States’ ever more obvious, deeper involvement in what is happening in Ukraine in terms of resistance to our special military operation in fact puts that country, the United States, on the verge of becoming a party to the conflict," Ryabkov said on the Rossiya-1 TV channel on Friday.

Washington denies this, he went on to say, but "the hard facts speak for themselves."

"No matter how much they may deny involvement in any decisions regarding the use of weapons, all this is refuted by life itself and certain statements by the Ukrainian side, to which we also paid attention," he added.

"It was essential to begin with refusal to supply these weapons. Now there is a demagogic campaign by the West and the United States, in particular, that all weapons are supplied within the framework of ‘Ukraine’s right to self-defense’," Ryabkov continued. "I beg your pardon, what kind of self-defense is this? They are already openly talking about the possibility of an attack on targets deep inside Russian territory, in Crimea. This is all an escalation of the conflict. And it is happening not just on advice from the United States and other NATO allies, and not just with their connivance. Such moods, approaches, plans, and ideas are encouraged directly from Washington."

Earlier, the Politico newspaper reported, citing a high-ranking US administration official, that the United States regarded as permissible Kiev’s use of US weapons, provided as military aid, for strikes against Crimea, because such actions were considered as "self-defense."