Russia has warned the United States to send more weapons to Ukraine, Moscow's ambassador to Washington has been quoted as saying by Reuters, citing Russia's state television network.
"We have stressed that this situation is unacceptable, when the United States is constantly supplying weapons to Ukraine, and we have called for an end to this practice," Anatoly Antonov said in an interview with Rossiya 24 TV. Antonov also announced that an official diplomatic note had been delivered in Washington, where Russia was expressing its concerns. He stressed that such supplies of weapons from the US will further aggravate the situation and escalate the conflict.
The US Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv late Sunday night. U.S. officials have pledged $ 713 million in new aid to the Zelensky government and other countries in the region that fear Russian aggression.
"Ukraine can win the war with the right weapons"
The first statements were made by the US Secretary of Defense and Secretary of State, who visited Kyiv on Sunday, during the first visit of US officials to the Ukrainian capital after two months of war in Ukraine. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said: "Ukraine can win the war with Russia if it has good equipment. The first thing to gain is to believe that you can do it. "And they (the Ukrainians) are confident they can win," Austin told reporters.
"They can win if they have good equipment, good support," he added after his visit to Kyiv yesterday, during which he and Blinken met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. "The focus of the meeting was on talks on things that will help us win the current battle and also build on tomorrow," he said, describing the meeting as "constructive."
According to Austin, Zelensky is grateful for what the United States is doing to help his country, adding that the nature of the fighting has changed and that Ukraine needs long-range weapons, while Kyiv said it needs tanks.
Regarding the weapons offered by the US to Ukraine, the US Secretary of Defense commented that Washington finds it difficult to monitor what is happening with them as there are no US forces on the ground, but stressed that he asked the Ukrainians to monitor as best as possible. it goes where these weapons go.
"We want to see Russia weakened to such an extent that it can not do things like the invasion of Ukraine," he said. "She has already lost a lot of her military skills and a lot of troops to be honest and we do not want her to be able to quickly restore those skills," he said.
For his part, Anthony Blinken assessed that "Russia has not achieved its military goals, Russia has already failed and Ukraine has already achieved." "We have seen people on the streets of Kiev, proof that the battle for Kyiv has been won," he said, adding, however, that "Russian violence is just horrible."