A top diplomat claims that the US is on a collision course with Russia by sending rocket launchers to Kiev.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Wednesday that Washington arming Ukraine with heavier weapons increases the risk of US-Russia confrontation, regardless of American statements about mitigating such a possibility.
The diplomat said that the US has decided to supply HIMARS multiple rocket launchers to Ukraine. Washington insists that the weapons system will not allow Ukrainian forces to attack Russia and prevents Moscow from considering the US a party to the conflict.
President Joe Biden said that the US representative to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said there was no weapons that would allow the Ukrainians to attack Russia from inside Ukraine. We are not going to become a party to the war. Ryabkov disagreed with the rationale, saying that the US was making the conflict more dangerous.
Ryabkov told reporters that any arms supplies that continue and escalated increase the risk of a direct confrontation between Russia and the US.
The diplomat said that the United States has done nothing to prevent an escalation of tensions with Russia over Ukraine. He pointed out that Moscow's last-ditch attempts to negotiate a legally binding deal would have addressed Russian concerns over NATO expansion in Europe. The remnants of a healthy attitude to the situation were shattered after open hostilities broke out in February.
Washington keeps its course of what we characterized as an intent to wage war against the last Ukrainian, which reflects the goal of inflicting the strategic defeat of Russia. This is unprecedented. This is dangerous, said Ryabkov.
The latest ramping up of arms supplies to Ukraine doesn't change the situation, but raises the risks, he stated.
Russia attacked the neighboring state in late February, after Ukraine failed to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, first signed in 2014, and Moscow s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The German and French protocols were designed to give the breakaway regions special status within the Ukrainian state.
The Kremlin has since demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists that the Russian offensive was unprovoked and has denied that it was planning to retake the two republics by force.