Moscow Warns ‘Circles in Washington’ over Hindering Peace Process in Ukraine
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Moscow is bewildered by Washington’s warmongering rhetoric, which accompanied President Petro Poroshenko’s visit to the US. Russia has also noted all the Russia-unfriendly opinions voiced recently by hawkish American politicians.
“We’ll keep in mind all signals, including those unfriendly towards Russia, that were heard during the visit of the Ukrainian president to Washington,” commented Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov.
“We do regret that there are quite influential circles (within the American establishment) that are unambiguously working against the emerging stabilization (in Ukraine),” Ryabkov said.
The Russian politician pointed out that peaceful initiatives agreed upon in Minsk by the Contact Group on Ukraine are at odds with statements made during President Poroshenko’s visit to the US, RT reported.
“It strengthens us in the opinion that the so-called party of war is strong not only in Kiev,” Ryabkov said, adding that some high-ranking American officials and politicians are willfully ignoring any positive outlook for resolving the crisis in Ukraine.
“They are hypocritically advocating normalization of the situation, while actually impeding this process,” Ryabkov said.
In interviews to national US TV channels, President Poroshenko said the American president had verbally confirmed that Ukraine now enjoys the “uppermost status” among US military partner states, which are not NATO members.
Poroshenko said that the non-lethal supplies promised by the US and other states are sufficient and would help to restore the Ukrainian army to battle-ready status.
“We will receive and have already received everything we need: surveillance, radar, and supervisory and other defensive equipment that will increase the effectiveness of our weapons and help modernize them,” Poroshenko said, adding that non-lethal equipment will come “not only from the US.”
Earlier this year Ukraine received, from various sources, body armor, helmets, army rations, radio sets, uniforms, barbed wire and other supplies.
President Poroshenko officially confirmed the Ukrainian army’s heavy losses in its military operations in the east of the country. He added that up to 65 percent of hardware in the field had been either lost or destroyed in battle, a situation the president said was changing.
