KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The speaker of Russia’s parliament warned on Sunday that countries that supply Ukraine with more powerful weapons risk their own destruction, a message that followed fresh promises of armored vehicles, air defense systems and other equipment, but not the battle tanks that Kyiv requested. .
“The supply of offensive weapons to the Kyiv regime would lead to a global catastrophe,” State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin said. “If Washington and NATO supply weapons that would be used to attack peaceful cities and try to seize our territory as they threaten to do, it would trigger a retaliation with more powerful weapons.”
Ukraine supporters pledged billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine on Friday, though the new pledges were overshadowed by failure by defense leaders. at an international meeting in Ramstein, Germany, to agree Ukraine’s urgent request for German-built Leopard 2 main battle tanks.
Germany is a major arms donor to Ukraine and has ordered a review of its Leopard 2 stocks in preparation for a possible green light. Nonetheless, the government in Berlin has shown caution at every step in increasing its commitments to Ukraine, a hesitancy seen as rooted in its history. and political culture.
Its provisional nature has drawn strong criticism, particularly from Poland and the Baltic states, countries on NATO’s eastern flank controlled by Moscow in the past and which feel especially threatened by Russia’s renewed imperial ambitions.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said if Germany did not agree to transfer Leopard tanks to Ukraine, his country was prepared to build a “smaller coalition” of countries that would send theirs anyway.
“Almost a year had passed since the outbreak of the war,” Morawiecki said in an interview with the Polish state news agency PAP published on Sunday. “Evidence of the Russian army’s war crimes can be seen on TV and on YouTube. What else does Germany need to open its eyes and start acting in accordance with the potential of the German state?
“Above all, Berlin should not weaken or sabotage the activities of other countries,” Morawiecki said.
In Washington, two top lawmakers urged the United States on Sunday to send some of its Abrams tanks to Ukraine, seeking to overcome Germany’s reluctance to share its own, more suitable Leopard 2 tanks.
“If we were to announce that we would give out one Abrams tank, just one, that would trigger” the flow of tanks from Germany, Rep. Michael McCaul, the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told ABC’s “This Week on Sunday.” “What I heard is that Germany is waiting for us to take the lead.”
Senator Chris Coons, a Democrat who is on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and considered close to President Joe Biden, also spoke out in favor of the United States sending Abrams.
“I am concerned that Russia is rearming and preparing for a spring offensive,” Coons said. “If it requires us to send some Abrams tanks to unlock Leopard tanks from Germany, from Poland, from other allies, I would support it.”
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, said the meeting in Ramstein “left no doubt that our enemies will try to exhaust us or better destroy us,” adding that they “have enough weapons” to achieve the purpose.
Medvedev, the former Russian president, warned on his messaging app channel that Russia could seek to form a military alliance with enemies of the United States. He did not name the nations he had in mind, but Russia has defense cooperation with Iran and Venezuela, an existing military alliance with Belarus and strong ties with North Korea. Since it invaded the Ukraine, Russia has also increased both in scope and in number. of its joint military exercises with China.
“In the event of a protracted conflict, a new military alliance will emerge that will include nations fed up with the Americans and a pack of their neutered dogs,” Medvedev said.
Ukraine is asking for more weapons as it anticipates that Russian forces will launch a new offensive in the spring.
Oleksii Danilov, secretary of the Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, warned that Russia may try to intensify its attacks in the south and east and cut off Western arms supply channels, while the conquest of Kyiv “remains the main dream.” of President Vladimir Putin. “Fantasies,” he said.
He described the Kremlin’s goal in the conflict as “total and utter genocide, a total war of destruction.”
“Moscow wants to completely destroy Ukraine as a historical phenomenon: its language, history, culture, carriers of the Ukrainian identity,” Danilov wrote in a column published by Ukrainska Pravda.
Among those calling for more weapons for Ukraine was former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who made a surprise trip to Ukraine on Sunday.
“This is the time to double down and give the Ukrainians all the tools they need to finish the job. The sooner Putin fails, the better for Ukraine and for the entire world,” Johnson said in a statement.
Johnson, who is facing new questions at home about his personal finances, was photographed in the town of Borodyanka, in the kyiv region. He said that he traveled to Ukraine at the invitation of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The last week was especially tragic for Ukraine even by the standards of a brutal war that has lasted almost a year, killing tens of thousands of people, uprooting millions more and creating vast destruction of Ukrainian cities.
A barrage of Russian missiles struck an apartment complex in the southeastern city of Dnipro on January 14, killing at least 45 civilians, including six children. On Wednesday, a government helicopter carrying the interior minister and other officials crashed into a building housing a kindergarten in a Kyiv suburb. The minister and a child on the ground were among the 14 people killed.
Zelenskyy, who on Saturday mourned the victims of the helicopter crash, promised on Sunday that Ukraine would prevail in the war.
“We are united because we are strong. We are strong because we are united,” the Ukrainian leader said in a video address while commemorating the Day of Unity of Ukraine, which commemorates the day in 1919 when eastern and western Ukraine were united.
“Dear invincible people, Happy Day of Ukrainian Unity!” he said.
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