Russia Warns United States Against Providing More Aid – Anatoly Antonov, the Russian Ambassador to the United States, said this week that the United States should stop sending arms to Ukraine, and warned that large deliveries of weapons from the West were making the conflict worse.
Speaking to Russia’s Rossiya 24 television channel, Antonov said that the United States is “pouring oil on the flames.”
“I see only an attempt to raise the stakes, to aggravate the situation, to see more losses,” he said.
Antonov also revealed that an official diplomatic note had been sent by Russia to Washington, D.C., but that no response was received from the United States.
“We stressed the unacceptability of this situation when the United States of America pours weapons into Ukraine, and we demanded an end to this practice,” the Russian diplomat said in the interview.
It’s not the first time Russia has warned NATO forces against arming Ukraine. In March, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov warned that convoys carrying weapons into Ukraine from the United States and NATO countries would be considered “legitimate targets” by the Russian military.
It was the first time that Russia appeared to possibly threaten to strike targets in NATO countries, given that these convoys typically stop at the Ukrainian border.
“We warned the United States that pumping Ukraine with weapons from a number of countries orchestrated by them is not just a dangerous move, but these are actions that turn the corresponding convoys into legitimate targets,” Ryabkov said during an interview on Russia’s Channel One.
Russia Attempts to Block Shipments to Ukraine
In recent days, Russia has stepped up attacks against Ukrainian infrastructure to prevent the continued delivery of weapons, ammunition, and supplies from NATO forces. Russia reportedly attacked Ukrainian rail and fuel facilities as its troops continue to ramp up their military offensives in the eastern Donbas region.
On Monday, Ukrainian Railways chief Oleksandr Kamyshin said that five railway facilities in central and western Ukraine had been hit by Russian missiles. There was also a missile attack close to the western city of Lviv.
At least five people are understood to have died in the strikes. Furthermore, an oil refinery in Kremenchuk in central Ukraine was also destroyed by Russian soldiers as part of a coordinated effort to shut off Ukrainian forces’ fuel supply. Worryingly, one professor suggested this week that the situation in Ukraine is entering a period of “incremental battlefield losses and gains,” suggesting that both sides will be exploring ways to do something new.
“The two sides are sort of every day weakening each other,” University of St. Andrews professor Phillips P O’Brien said. “So it’s a question of what you can bring in that’s new…what can you destroy on the other side?”
Jack Buckby is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society.
