Author of the article: Washington Post Karen DeYoung, The Washington Post Date of publication: 18 Apr 2022 • 2 hours ago • 5 minutes reading • 257 comments Ukrainian soldiers stand on top of a Russian artillery they captured during battle outside Kharkov as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, Ukraine, March 29, 2022. Photo by REUTERS / Thomas Petros
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WASHINGTON – Russia sent an official diplomatic note to the United States this week, warning that missions by “most sensitive” US and NATO weapons systems to Ukraine “add fuel” to the conflict there and could have “unpredictable” consequences.
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The diplomatic move, a copy of which was considered by the Washington Post, came as President Joe Biden approved a dramatic expansion of arms supplies to Ukraine, a $ 800 million package that includes 155-millimeter aircraft – a major upgrade to range artillery to match Russian systems – drones and coastal defense armored vehicles, as well as additional portable anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons and millions of cartridges. The United States has also facilitated the deployment of long-range air defense systems to Ukraine, including the deployment of Russian-made S-300 launchers from Slovakia, in which Ukrainian forces have already been trained. In return, the government announced last week, the United States is developing a Patriot missile system in Slovakia and is consulting with Slovakia on a long-term replacement.
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The arms shipment, the first wave of which US officials said would arrive in Ukraine within days, follows an urgent appeal to Biden by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as Russian forces are said to be mobilizing for a major offensive in the Don region. of eastern Ukraine and along the coastal strip connecting it to Russian-occupied Crimea in the south. Russian troops have largely withdrawn from much of the northern part of the country, including the capital, Kiev, following humiliating defeats by the Ukrainian army and local resistance forces. “What the Russians are telling us privately is exactly what we have been telling the world in public – that the huge amount of aid we are providing to our Ukrainian partners is proving to be extremely effective,” said a senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity. the sensitive diplomatic document.
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The State Department declined to comment on the content of the two-page diplomatic statement or any US response. Russian experts have suggested that Moscow, which has designated arms shipments entering the country as legitimate military targets but has not attacked them so far, may be preparing to do so. “They have targeted supply depots in Ukraine itself, where some of these supplies have been stored,” said George Bibe, CIA’s former director of analysis at Russia and former Vice President Dick Cheney’s adviser on Russia. “The real question is whether they go beyond the targeting effort [the weapons] on Ukrainian soil, try to hit the supply convoys themselves and perhaps the NATO countries in the Ukrainian periphery “that serve as transit points for US supplies.
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“If Russian forces stumble into the next phase of the war as in the first,” then I think the chances of Russia targeting NATO supplies on NATO territory increase significantly, “Beebe said. “There was an assumption on the part of many of us in the West that we could feed the Ukrainians really without limits and not pose a significant risk of retaliation from Russia,” he said. “I think the Russians want to send a message here that this is not true.” The diplomatic note was issued on Tuesday, as word spread for the first time about the new arms package, which stated the total amount of US military aid to Ukraine since the February 24 invasion was $ 3.2 billion, according to his spokesman. Pentagon John Kirby. In a public statement Wednesday, Biden said he would include “new capabilities tailored to the wider attack we expect Russia to launch in eastern Ukraine.”
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The document, entitled “On Russia’s Concerns Over the Mass Procurement of Arms and Military Equipment under the Kiev Regime”, written in Russian with a translation provided, was forwarded to the State Department by the Russian Embassy in Washington. The Russian embassy did not respond to requests for comment. Among the items Russia described as “most sensitive” were “multiple missile launchers,” although the United States and its NATO allies are not believed to have supplied these weapons to Ukraine. Russia has accused the allies of violating “strict principles” governing the transfer of weapons to conflict zones and of ignoring “the threat of high-precision weapons falling into the hands of radical nationalists, extremists and bandits in Ukraine.”
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He accused NATO of trying to force Ukraine to “abandon” negotiations with Russia, and so far unsuccessful, “in order to continue the bloodshed.” Washington, he said, was pressuring other countries to suspend any military and technical cooperation with Russia and to bring Soviet-era weapons to Ukraine. “We call on the United States and its allies to stop the irresponsible militarization of Ukraine, which has unintended consequences for regional and international security,” the statement said. Andrew Weiss, the former director of the National Security Council on Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, and now vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, recalled that Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a speech on the morning of February, began the invasion. , warned that Western nations would face “greater consequences than you have seen in history” if they were involved in the conflict.
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The focus at the time was on Putin’s reminder that Russia has a strong nuclear arsenal, Weiss said, but it was also “a very explicit warning not to send weapons to a conflict zone.” Having drawn a red line, he asked, are the Russians “now willing to support it?” Such an attack would be “a very important escalation move, first and foremost because it represents a threat to the West if it is unable to maintain supplies flowing into Ukraine, which in turn could reduce Ukraine’s ability to Self-defense”. That risk “should not be underestimated,” he said, noting the added risk that an attempt to strike an escort inside Ukraine could go awry across NATO borders. Senior U.S. defense officials remain concerned about the possibility of such attacks. “We do not take for granted any movement of weapons and systems going to Ukraine,” Kirby said on Thursday. “Not on any given day.” Kirby said Ukrainian troops were bringing weapons to Ukraine after the United States brought them to the region and “the less we say about it, the better.”
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