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The government of United Kingdom has started supplying Ukraine anti-tank weapons in response to “Russia’s increasingly threatening behavior” in the border area, as announced by the British defense minister, Ben Wallace, who has added that London contributes “a small number” of troops for training.
“We have made the decision to deliver to Ukraine defensive systems against tanks”, said Wallace before the House of Commons, according to the British newspaper ‘The Guardian’. The minister has insisted that the weapons are defensive, although Moscow has repeatedly denounced the sale of modern weapons to Kiev.
In this sense, the British minister stressed that “this support is for short-range and clearly defensive capabilities.” “They are not strategic weapons and they do not pose any threat to Russia. They are for use in self-defense,” he stressed.
Wallace has also said that he will invite his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu, to a meeting in London, although he has not specified whether it will take place. “We are prepared to discuss matters related to mutual security concerns and to do so constructively, in good faith,” he argued.
Also, it has been pointed out that “There is a package of international sanctions ready to be applied” if Russia adopts new “destabilizing actions” with respect to Ukraine, as reported by the British television network BBC.
“We want to be friends of the Russian people, as we have been for hundreds of years. There is a world in which we can establish a beneficial relationship with Russia”, he added, before expressing his hope that “diplomacy will prevail”. “It is the choice of the (Russian) president, Vladimir) Putin if he chooses diplomacy and dialogue or conflict and the consequences”, has stated.
“I have visited Ukraine five times since 2016 and I know that Ukrainians are a proud people who will fight for their country, for democracy and for freedom”, he pointed out. “Any invasion will not be seen as a liberation, but as an occupation, and I fear that it would lead to an enormous loss of life for all parties”, he stressed.
The British Ministry of Defense has not detailed for now what type of weapons it has sent to Ukraine nor the number of weapons it has sent, although weapons experts quoted by the newspaper have pointed out that they would benew generation anti-tank weapons not as powerful as ‘Javelin’ missiles delivered by the US to Kiev since 2018.
In response, the Labor Party has said it supports the announcement, of which it had been notified in advance. John Healey, in charge of Defense in the formation, has emphasized that they are “anti-tank weapons” and has said that London must guarantee that “they will not be used, unless Russia invades.”
For his part, the Ukrainian ambassador in London, Vadim Pristaiko, told the BBC that Kiev applauds the shipment but has pointed out that the biggest problem is not being a member of NATO. “We want to be in NATO. We are facing the largest Army in Europe by ourselves”, he concluded.
The Russian ambassador to the United States, Anatoli Antonov, claimed last week that the protests against Moscow over its alleged preparations for an invasion of Ukraine “are the result of a mental disorder” and blamed these allegations on “the sick imagination of Russophobic circles”.
The Russian Ministry of Defense maintained after the meeting held on January 12 in Brussels that the current diplomatic crisis between Moscow and NATO takes place, among other issues, because of “the use of another arms race” and for “the total degradation of the security architecture in Europe”.
For its part, NATO offered Moscow to continue the dialogue through a schedule of meetings in the short term that will facilitate a solution to the security crisis in Europe, after the large Russian military concentration has set off the alarms about a Possible aggression against Ukraine.
During the meeting, the Atlantic Alliance rejected Russian demands to ensure that Ukraine and Georgia do not join NATO, something that he considers a decision of the candidate country and of the allies. Likewise, the Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, acknowledged that there is a “real risk” of conflict and reiterated that an aggression against Ukraine will entail a “severe” cost and would be a “strategic mistake” by Russia.
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