Russia slams European Council for equipping Ukraine with ‘deadly’ weapons

Russia has slammed the European Council for its decision on additional 500 million Euros funding for the supply of weapons to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and on the creation of an EU mission for military support to Ukraine.

In a two-day meeting in Brussels on October 20-21, the European Union decided that it will stand with Ukraine “for as long as it takes” and will continue to provide strong political, military and financial support to Ukraine, including for its liquidity needs.

“We see that the EU does not demonstrate readiness for a peaceful resolution of the conflict. On the contrary, they continue to mindlessly invest heavily in dragging out hostilities,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in a statement on Saturday.

“In fact, the European Union will train and equip Ukrainian militants with deadly weapons, who will continue to destroy civilians, destroy civilian and critical infrastructure. Is the EU ready to share responsibility for these crimes?” she questioned.

The European Council also strongly condemned the military support provided to Russia by the Iranian authorities and called on Belarus to stop enabling the “Russian war of aggression” by permitting Russian armed forces to use its territory and by providing support to the Russian military.

In response, Moscow said that the decisions adopted at the EU Council meeting have once again confirmed the “confrontational nature” of the EU’s policy, asserting that its current political leadership and member states is still trying to impose its concept of a “rules-based world order” on the whole world thereby replacing the basic principles of international law based on the UN Charter.

“The European Union, which has almost exhausted its own possibilities for increasing sanctions pressure on Russia, continues to try by any means to force third countries to comply with the requirements of illegitimate EU restrictive measures, which are openly used by the West as an instrument of dirty competition. This not only increases the risk of a further increase in crisis phenomena in the world, but also completely ignores the principle of the sovereign equality of states, which is key for international relations,” said Zakharova.

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