The US earlier confirmed it will send Ukraine four sophisticated, medium-range rocket systems and ammunition to help try to stall Russian progress in the Donbas region.
The medium-range high mobility artillery rocket systems are part of a new $700m tranche of security assistance that also includes helicopters, Javelin anti-tank weapon systems, radars, tactical vehicles, spare parts and more. It will take at least three weeks to get the precision weapons and trained troops onto the battlefield, the Pentagon said.
Ukraine promised Washington it will not use the rocket systems to hit targets inside Russian territory.
However, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said the supply of US advanced rocket systems to Ukraine increases the risk of a “third country” being dragged into the conflict. Lavrov’s deputy, Sergei Ryabkov, said that Moscow viewed US military aid to Ukraine “extremely negatively” and that it would increase the risk of a direct confrontation.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters:
We believe that the United States is purposefully and diligently adding fuel to the fire.”
Lavrov later told a news conference in Saudi Arabia:
It is a direct provocation (by Ukraine), aimed at involving the West in military action.”