Russia slams US plan for arming Ukraine

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has criticized the US' plans to supply “lethal weapons” to the Ukrainian government.

Lavrov made the criticism at a meeting with his American counterpart John Kerry in Munich.

"Lavrov stressed that the plans currently discussed in Washington to supply military hardware and weapons to Kyiv could have unpredictable consequences and risk undermining the efforts to find a political solution to the conflict in the South-East of the country," the Russian Foreign Ministry said on its Facebook page.

Lavrov and Kerry met on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on Saturday.

Russia believes arms supplies to Ukraine would only aggravate the raging crisis in the European country.

Lavrov had earlier said that Washington’s actions over the crisis in Ukraine crisis had aggravated the situation.

“The U.S. took steps at each stage of the Ukraine crisis that only led to its further escalation,” Lavrov said at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday.

He also added that the US puts the blame on Russia for “any complicated situation”.

“In any complicated situation, our American colleagues try to shift the blame to Russia - take, for instance, the talk about the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which has become increasingly more active of late.”

The New York Times the US President Barack Obama’s administration is considering supplying Ukrainian forces with weapons and equipment to fight pro-Russian militias in country’s restive eastern regions.

It reported that John Kerry and US joint chiefs chairman Martin Dempsey were open to discuss the idea.

An increasing numbers of American lawmakers have been asking President Obama to send arms to Ukraine.

Republican Senator John McCain, leading a dozen Republican and Democratic lawmakers, said few days ago that US lawmakers would introduce a legislation requiring the US to send arms to Ukraine if President Barack Obama does not move to send weapons.

Republican and Democrat Senators from Illinois Mark Kirk and Richard Durbin have written a letter to President Obama asking him to ask Obama to arm Ukraine “over escalating Russian aggression” there.

The idea of sending lethal arms to Ukraine has drove a wedge among Washington’s allies with German Chancellor Angela Merkel saying the crisis in Ukraine would not be solved by military means.

“The progress that Ukraine needs cannot be achieved by more weapons,” Merkel said in Munich on Saturday.

“The problem is that I cannot envisage any situation in which an improved equipment of the Ukrainian army leads to a situation where President Putin is so impressed that he will lose militarily.”

DDB/DDB

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