KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The speaker of Russia’s parliament warned Sunday that countries supplying Ukraine with more powerful weapons risked their very own destruction, a message that followed recent pledges of armored vehicles, air defense systems and other equipment but not the battle tanks Kyiv requested.
“Supplies of offensive weapons to the Kyiv regime would result in a worldwide catastrophe,” State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin said. “If Washington and NATO supply weapons that may be used for striking peaceful cities and making attempts to seize our territory as they threaten to do, it will trigger a retaliation with more powerful weapons.”
Ukraine’s supporters pledged billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine on Friday, though the brand new commitments were overshadowed by defense leaders failing at a world meeting in Ramstein, Germany, to agree on Ukraine’s urgent request for German-made Leopard 2 battle tanks.
Germany is one among the predominant donors of weapons to Ukraine, and it ordered a review of its Leopard 2 stocks in preparation for a possible green light. Nonetheless, the federal government in Berlin has shown caution at each step of accelerating its commitments to Ukraine, a hesitancy seen as rooted in its history and political culture.
Its tentativeness has drawn heavy criticism, particularly from Poland and the Baltic states, countries on NATO’s eastern flank controlled by Moscow up to now and feel especially threatened by Russia’s renewed imperial ambitions.
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Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that if Germany doesn’t consent to transferring Leopard tanks to Ukraine, his country was prepared to construct a coalition of nations that may send theirs anyway.
“Almost a yr had passed for the reason that outbreak of war,” Morawiecki said in an interview with Polish state news agency PAP published Sunday. “Evidence of the Russian army’s war crimes will be seen on television and on YouTube. What more does Germany must open its eyes and begin to act in step with the potential of the German state?”
“Above all, Berlin shouldn’t weaken or sabotage the activities of other countries,” Morawiecki said.
In Washington, two leading lawmakers urged the U.S. on Sunday to send a few of its Abrams tanks to Ukraine, within the interests of overcoming Germany’s reluctance to share its own, more suitable Leopard 2 tanks.
“If we announced we were giving an Abrams tank, only one, that may unleash” the flow of tanks from Germany, Rep. Michael McCaul, the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told ABC’s “This Week on Sunday.” “What I hear is that Germany’s waiting on us to take the lead.”
Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of the Russian Security Council, said the meeting in Ramstein “left little question that our enemies will attempt to exhaust or higher destroy us,” adding that “they’ve enough weapons” to attain the aim.
Medvedev, a former Russian president, warned on his messaging app channel that Russia could seek to form a military alliance with foes of america. He didn’t name the nations he had in mind, but Russia has defense cooperation with Iran and Venezuela, an existing military alliance with Belarus and powerful ties with North Korea.. Since invading Ukraine, Russia also has increased each the scope and the variety of its joint military drills with China.
“In case of a protracted conflict, a recent military alliance will emerge that can include the nations which might be fed up with the Americans and a pack of their castrated dogs,” Medvedev said.
Ukraine is asking for more weapons because it anticipates Russia’s forces launching a recent offensive within the spring.
Oleksii Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s Security and Defense Council, warned that Russia may try to accentuate its attacks within the south and within the east and to chop supply channels of Western weapons, while conquering Kyiv “stays the predominant dream” in President Vladimir Putin’s “fantasies.” he said.
He described the Kremlin’s goal within the conflict as a “total and absolute genocide, a complete war of destruction.”
“Moscow desires to completely destroy Ukraine as a historical phenomenon — its language, history, culture, carriers of Ukrainian identity,” Danilov wrote in a column published by Ukrainska Pravda.
Amongst those calling for more arms for Ukraine was the previous British prime minister, Boris Johnson, who made a surprise trip to Ukraine on Sunday.
“That is the moment to double down and to offer the Ukrainians all of the tools they should finish the job. The earlier Putin fails, the higher for Ukraine and for the entire world,” Johnson said in a press release.
Johnson, who faces fresh questions at home over his personal funds, was pictured within the Kyiv region town of Borodyanka. He said he traveled to Ukraine on the invitation of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The last week was especially tragic for Ukraine even by the standards of a brutal war that has gone on for nearly a yr, killing tens of hundreds of individuals, uprooting hundreds of thousands more and creating vast destruction of Ukrainian cities.
A barrage of Russian missiles struck an apartment complex within the southeastern city of Dnipro on Jan. 14, killing no less than 45 civilians, including six children. On Wednesday, a government helicopter carrying the inside minister and other officials crashed right into a constructing housing a kindergarten in a suburb of Kyiv. The minister and a baby on the bottom were among the many 14 people killed.
Zelenskyy, who on Saturday mourned the victims of the helicopter crash, vowed Sunday that Ukraine would prevail within the war.
“We’re united because we’re strong. We’re strong because we’re united,” the Ukrainian leader said in a video address as he marked Ukraine Unity Day, which commemorates the day in 1919 when East and West Ukraine were united.
“Dear invincible people, Glad Ukrainian Unity Day!” he said.
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