WASHINGTON, (BM) – The US Senate proposed annually allocating $ 300 million to Ukraine for military needs, including for the purchase of lethal weapons. The State Duma indicated that, in this case, Moscow will consider itself competent to supply weapons to the DPR and LPR fighters, learned BulgarianMilitary.com.
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Members of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee unveiled a bill providing for an annual payment for the activities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the amount of $ 300 million, including for the purchase of lethal weapons.
The authors of the document are activists of both parties – Republican and Democratic, according to Reuters.
Also, politicians want to transfer to Kyiv about $ 4 million for military training of employees of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In addition, the bill specifies the provision by the Pentagon and the State Department of regular data on the military needs of Ukraine.
If Washington decides to sponsor Ukraine’s military activities, this is likely to negatively affect the conflict between the Ukrainian authorities and the self-proclaimed DPR and LPR – towards escalation, a source at the Russian Foreign Ministry warned.
“We have repeatedly said that in the presence of a conflict in the southeast of Ukraine, the supply of weapons, military equipment, especially lethal weapons, in no way contributes to its settlement, but is a factor that preserves this conflict and, moreover, creates conditions for its intensification, “– RIA Novosti quotes a diplomatic statement.
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Chairman of the State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots Leonid Kalashnikov, in turn, predicted that such actions by the United States could force Russia to supply weapons to the militias, writes Interfax.
The parliamentarian explained his position by the fact that if one of the parties to the conflict someone supplies weapons, then Russia will thus have to protect people from the other side, that is, from the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics.
On Monday, July 20, Russian President Vladimir Putin took part in the laying of two multi-purpose landing ships – “Ivan Rogov” and “Mitrofan Moskalenko” – at the Kerch plant “Zaliv”.
In addition, by videoconference, Putin watched the laying of the Voronezh and Vladivostok nuclear submarines in Severodvinsk, as well as the Admiral Yumashev and Admiral Spiridonov frigates in St. Petersburg.
“There are now about 60 of our ships and support vessels in key regions of the World Ocean. Almost half of them are in the far sea zone. And such long sea voyages, the demonstration of the Russian flag have been held in recent years on an ongoing basis,” Putin said during the ceremony.
American diplomats in Kyiv criticized the construction of ships in Crimea.
“Russia’s unauthorized construction of warships on sovereign Ukrainian territory captured by force violates international norms. The sanctions will be in effect until Russia returns control over Crimea to Ukraine and withdraws its troops from Donbass,” the American diplomatic mission commented on this news.
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At the same time, it is worth noting that if a military conflict occurs between Ukraine and Russia, NATO will not intervene and openly support Kiev, said the former commander of the US Armed Forces in Europe, General Ben Hodges.
“I would not have expected this, since Ukraine is not a NATO member. However, I expect that several countries will be very concerned,” TSN quotes him.
Hodges expressed the opinion that many member states of the alliance, including Germany and Turkey, would not want to put pressure on Moscow, therefore, if there was a confrontation between Russia and Ukraine, NATO’s physical intervention could not be expected.
Nevertheless, after the incident in the Kerch Strait in November 2018, the United States began to actively support the Ukrainian Navy, according to the Defense News article.
Since then, Washington has been actively supporting the Ukrainian Navy, supplying weapons and providing financial assistance. In particular, on June 17 it became known that the State Department approved a potential sale to the Ukrainian side of 16 Mark VI patrol boats and other equipment in the amount of $ 600 million.
And in May of this year, Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Volodymyr Yelchenko announced that Kyiv and Washington are negotiating the purchase of three large consignments of weapons and the deal should be closed this year.
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“These weapons are especially important today in Donbass, in eastern Ukraine, for our protection. We are talking about at least three large parties, and I will not specify,” said the Ukrainian diplomat.
This could mean that Kyiv is preparing a large-scale offensive in the Donbass in case of difficulties with peace agreements, said Konstantin Zatulin, a member of the State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs and Relations with Compatriots.
According to him, if the Ukrainian authorities do not like the conditions that will be agreed in the Minsk and Normandy formats, Kyiv may violate all peace agreements and undertake aggressive options to “resolve” the Donbass issue.
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