Deliveries Of Lethal Weapons Aggravate Situation In Ukraine - Moscow

Supplies of various types of lethal weapons to Ukraine and attempts to involve Kiev in any blocs only aggravate the situation in the country, the Russian Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said on Wednesday.

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th October, 2018) Supplies of various types of lethal weapons to Ukraine and attempts to involve Kiev in any blocs only aggravate the situation in the country, the Russian Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said on Wednesday.

"Supplies of various types of lethal or non-lethal weapons, talks about this, allocation of additional funds, endless escalation of rhetoric about the need to involve Ukraine in some blocs, [talks] about a military scenario - all this has nothing to do with respect for this state and its people ... There is nothing worse for the current stage of Ukraine's development as pushing it to new violent ways of solving the internal Ukrainian conflict," Zakharova told a briefing.

Zakharova stressed that such actions and speculations were not aimed at helping Ukraine return "to normal existence and to solve its problems," but they only aggravated the situation in the country.

In 2017, the administration of US President Donald Trump agreed to supply Javelin portable anti-tank missiles to Kiev. Previous US administration refused to deliver these weapons, despite numerous requests from Ukraine. The incumbent administration, however, endorsed the transaction and signed off the $47-million deal, saying that the step was meant to help Ukraine defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity. In late April, the Javelin systems were delivered to Ukraine.

Moscow has repeatedly warned against supplying weapons to Ukraine, saying that this would result in an escalation of the military conflict in the country's eastern Donbas region, ongoing since 2014. This stance has also been supported by a number of European officials.