MOSCOW, August 10. /TASS/. It is high time the European leaders acknowledged that their anti-Russian policy is doomed to fail, a senior Russian lawmaker said.
"It’s time the so-called European leaders saw that their anti-Russian policy and staking on Ukraine are doomed to failure. Their promised military aid is a poor rhetoric, bearing in mind the deplorable frontline situation for Zelensky. They will not be able to help him," Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the international committee of the Russian State Duma, or lower house of parliament, and leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), wrote on his Telegram channel, commenting on NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte’s plans to continue arms deliveries to Ukraine.
According to the lawmaker, the actions by the EU and NATO leaders have little to do with settling the Ukrainian conflict. In his words, they are seeking to hamper peace in Ukraine for the sake of their own ambitions.
"The NATO and EU leaders, who have been thrown to the backstage of global politics by their own Russophobia, look pitiful in their attempts to outstrip the Russian-US locomotive," Slutsky added.
Rutte said in an interview with CBS News earlier in the day that supplies of Europe-sponsored American weapons to Ukraine will continue regardless of the outcome of the Russia-US summit on August 15.
On July 14, President Donald Trump announced at a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte that the two had agreed to the delivery of US weapons to Ukraine at the expense of European countries. The alliance will coordinate the deliveries, which will include weapons such as Patriot systems. The US president said that the volume of military aid that will be supplied to Ukraine through NATO will amount to billions of dollars.
Trump said earlier that he hopes to hold a meeting with Putin in Alaska on August 15. The date and venue were later confirmed by Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov, who said that the Russian and US presidents will focus on discussing option for reaching a lasting settlement of the Ukrainian crisis. He also said that the Kremlin expected that the two leaders will meet in Russia’s territory after their talks in Alaska.