Russia urges NATO, EU to stop supplying weapons to Ukraine
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Russia, amid fears for civilian aviation across Europe and a wider region, calls on the west to halt arms supplies to Ukraine.
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Ukrainian soldiers at Borispil International Airport outside Kiev, Ukraine, unpack Javelin antitank missiles from the United States on February 10 (Reuters)
Russia is calling on NATO and European Union member states to stop providing weapons and lethal arms to Kiev amid Moscow's special military operation in Ukraine.
The reason behind the call, as cited by the Russian foreign ministry on Saturday, is the fact that the arms supplies to Kiev pose a threat to civilian aviation in the region.
"We are once again urging EU and NATO countries to stop the senseless 'pumping' of the inviable Kiev regime with cutting edge weapons systems in order to avoid risks for international civilian aviation and other transport communications," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in a statement.
Zakharova said the threat those weapons pose to civilian aviation does not only include Europe, as it expands beyond the continent and affects several countries in the region.
According to the foreign ministry official, Kiev has received 2,000 tonnes of modern weapons, ammunition and protective equipment in the last month as fighting goes on.
Despite the heavy western support, the Russian defense ministry made a tally of all Ukrainian losses, which reflect the damage inflicted on Kiev, as the Russian army demolished over 2,100 military facilities, as per ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov.
Since the start of the Russian special operation in Ukraine, Konashenkov said, Moscow destroyed 2119 military facilities, including 74 command and communication centers, 108 S-300, Buk M-1, and Osa air defense systems, 68 radar stations, 69 grounded aircraft, 21 aircraft in the air, 748 tanks and armored vehicles, 76 multiple rocket launchers, 274 Howitzers and mortars, 532 vehicles, and 59 UAVs.
Russia had for months been warning of the threat posed against it by NATO's attempts to expand eastward, which happened simultaneously with an increase in NATO military activity along Russia's borders, and batches of lethal weapons being sent to Ukraine, prompting Russia to request security guarantees from the West. Washington failed to provide the guarantees.
After the West did not respond to Russia's demands, and amid Ukrainian shelling on the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, President Vladimir Putin initiated a special military operation in Donbass.
