UNITED NATIONS, December 16. /TASS/. The United Nations would like to see peace in Ukraine, but not the deployment of new weapons to the region, UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said at a briefing on Friday, when asked for a reaction to Washington’s expected announcement of sending Patriot air and missile defense systems to Kiev.

"All that we’re seeing right now, I mean, in the last few days are escalations. Which is not going the way that we would like to see. The Secretary General would like to see an end to this war. And right now, we’re seeing an intensification of the conflict.

"I’m not going to start commenting on the deployment of each new weapon system one way or another. What we would like to see is not more arms being thrown out of the theater of war in Ukraine, but we would like to see peace," he added.

Earlier, CNN reported citing sources that Washington had been finalizing plans to send Patriot systems to Ukraine. Washington has not officially confirmed the shipment of this type of system to Kiev.