Russia FM asks US, NATO to Stop Supplying Arms to Ukraine
April 30, 2022
Russia’s foreign minister has again urged the United States and NATO to stop supplying Kyiv with arms if they are “really interested in resolving the Ukraine crisis”, Chinese state media has reported.
“If the US and NATO are really interested in resolving the Ukraine crisis, then first of all, they should wake up and stop supplying the Kyiv regime with arms and ammunition,” Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with China’s official Xinhua news agency.
The US and several European countries have supplied weapons worth billions of dollars to Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression. US President Joe Biden has asked Congress for $33bn to support Ukraine.
Moscow has repeatedly warned Washington against continuing its military assistance to Kyiv, accusing the US of “pouring oil on the flames” of the war. The Kremlin had previously called Western arms deliveries to Ukraine a threat to European security.
Months into an invasion that failed in its short-term aim of capturing Kyiv, Moscow is now intensifying operations in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. But Lavrov told China’s official Xinhua news agency that the “special military operation … is proceeding strictly according to plan”.
China has avoided condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and defends its firm friendship with Moscow, with state media often echoing the Russian line on the war.
Russia said Western sanctions and arms shipments to Ukraine are hampering peace negotiations. Lavrov said the talks continue – but that progress is difficult.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Polish journalists that chances were “high” talks to end the conflict could end without any agreement.
“The risks that the talks will end are high because of what they (the Russians) have left behind them, the impression that they have a playbook on murdering people,” Zelenskyy told Polish journalists. The shaky talks have not been held in person for a month.
