Shoigu: West must stop pumping weapons into Ukraine

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Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced today that Moscow has studied the response of the US and NATO security guarantees, maintaining that Russia will soon respond. 

During his meeting with his British counterpart Ben Wallace, Shoigu said the Russian response will soon come. 

Russia sent the US a written message on February 1, containing the Kremlin's notes on the written response delivered by Washington to Moscow, including its response to its security demands and requirements for resolving the crisis in Ukraine.

The Russian Defense Minister stressed that Moscow is not responsible for the aggravation of the security situation in Europe, noting that "the military-political situation in Europe is becoming more and more tense."

According to Shoigu, "Now all these [responses] are considered. I think we will respond in near future."

The Russian Defense Minister expressed his hope to discuss, with his British counterpart Ben Wallace who arrived Friday in Moscow, urgent issues in order to reduce tensions.

Shoigu: The West must stop pumping weapons into Ukraine

Shoigu called on the West to contribute to reducing this tension and stopping the supply of weapons to Ukraine. "It is coming from all sides, it is being done publicly… It's not entirely clear why. I would also like to understand why the United Kingdom sent its special forces to Ukraine, and how long they will stay there," Shoigu said.

In that regard, Wallace recalled that NATO, during its withdrawal from Afghanistan last year, left weapons and military equipment worth nearly $80 billion. 

The Russian Minister warned that the weapons pose a grave danger particularly considering the number of IS militants in Afghanistan "has doubled".

According to Shoigu, "It is difficult to understand where these weapons are and who will get them. We would not want this topic to fade away. Like the issue of refugees from Afghanistan. Like the issue of drug trafficking from Afghanistan."

Russian-British cooperation near zero

During the meeting, Shoigu noted that the first meeting in years is "close to zero," calling for stopping aggravating the situation in relations between Russia and NATO, or else the level of cooperation would cross the zero meridian and go negative, which Russia does not want.

Shoigu hoped to discuss pressing issues with Britain "without escalation and raising the temperature even higher in relations between Russia and NATO countries."

The meeting comes after Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with British FM Liz Truss yesterday.

In a meeting held in Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov mentioned to his British counterpart Liz Truss that Russian-British relations "have perhaps reached their lowest levels in many years."