Kiev “can guarantee” it will use longer-range weapons to “liberate” the territories it claims, Dmitry Kuleba says
Ukraine is committed to using Western-supplied arms to seize back its former territories from Moscow, Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said on Thursday. The top diplomat, however, stopped short of giving a promise to not use such weaponry to strike deep into the rest of Russia.
Speaking to Sky News, the minister reiterated Ukraine’s repeated requests for modern Western-made jets. So far, however, no country has provided Kiev with such aircraft, while numerous top officials have expressed fears that doing so would greatly escalate the hostilities and may potentially lead to a direct collision between NATO and Russia.
“We’re using weapons which we receive from partners to strike Russia in the occupied territories of Ukraine,” Kuleba told the outlet, apparently referring to the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, which, along with Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, overwhelmingly voted to join Russia last autumn – just as the Crimean peninsula did in 2014.
When pressed on whether Kiev could promise that it would not use long-range weapons and jets for strikes inside Russia, Kuleba dodged the question, offering a somewhat vague “guarantee” instead.
“We can guarantee that we will be using Western weapons to liberate Ukrainian territories,” he stated.
Moscow has repeatedly accused the collective West of enabling Ukraine to strike deeper into Russian territory. In his annual address to the Federal Assembly earlier this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Kiev’s handlers had been directly involved in drone attacks on the country’s facilities housing strategic, nuclear-capable aviation.
“We know that the West was directly involved in the attempts by the Kiev regime to strike the bases that house our strategic aircraft,” Putin stated. “The drones used [in the raids] were equipped and upgraded with help from NATO experts.”
Citing the ongoing hostilities and the Western involvement in them, the Russian president announced the decision to suspend the 2010 New START Treaty with the US that caps the number of nuclear warheads that can be possessed and the means of delivery, as well as allowing for inspections of each other’s nuclear arsenal.
“I want to emphasize: The US and NATO are saying outright that their goal is to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia. And, after this, they are going to tour our defense sites as if nothing is happening?” Putin stated in his address.
RT (Russia Today) is a state-owned news organization funded by the Russian government. The information provided by this news source is being included by the Libertarian Hub not as an endorsement of the Russian government, but rather because it is being actively censored by Big Tech, Western governments and the corporate press. During times of conflict it is imperative that we have access to both sides of the story so we can form our own opinions, even if both sides are spewing their own propaganda. The censorship of RT, despite likely being a propaganda outfit for the Russian government, reduces our ability to hear one side of the conflict. For that reason, the Libertarian Hub will temporarily republish the RSS feed from RT. Visit https://rt.com
