Russia warns the West of making a big mistake when transferring weapons to Ukraine

“We consider the transportation of Western weapons to Kiev a big mistake. This will prolong the conflict, increase the number of casualties and will not affect the outcome of the operation. Such aid trips are not to aid Ukraine, but to drag the country into a conflict military lasts “until the last Ukrainian remains”, the head of the Operations Department of the General Staff of the Russian Army Sergei Rudskoy announced at a press conference on March 25.

According to Rudskoy, since Russia began its military operation in Ukraine, Western countries have shipped more than 100 artillery units, nearly 900 mobile air defense missile systems and 3,800 anti-tank weapons to Kiev.

Mr. Rudskoy warned that Russia will not turn a blind eye to the sending of aircraft and air defense systems to Ukraine. In addition, Moscow will take “immediately appropriate response” if any country tries to establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine.

Mr. Rudskoy said the number of foreign mercenaries and militiamen in Ukraine, which previously amounted to 6,600, has begun to decrease. The Russian official attributed such a decline to Russian high-precision weapons attacks on bases and training camps of mercenaries. In addition, part of the mercenaries also fled to neighboring countries of Ukraine.

According to Rudskoy, in the past seven days, not a single foreign mercenary has come to Ukraine, while 285 fighters have fled.

Earlier, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov on March 14 accused Western governments of encouraging their citizens to join the war against the Russian army in Ukraine as mercenaries.

Russia has repeatedly criticized the US and its allies’ aid to Ukraine with weapons as a dangerous act to escalate the situation, and warned that convoys carrying foreign weapons to Kiev could become “legitimate targets”. ” of Russian forces. According to some sources, Western arms aid to Ukraine is transported through the Polish border.

The US and Western countries were initially quite cautious when only providing simple weapons and equipment such as helmets and bulletproof vests to Ukraine. However, currently, in the arms shipments to Ukraine, there are also drones capable of destroying Russian tanks and artillery at a distance of tens of kilometers.

Aleksey Danilov, head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said that if Russia attacked a vehicle carrying Western weapons to Ukraine, NATO would consider this as a reason to activate Article 5 of the treaty. conventions of the union protect members. Article 5 provides for “collective defense”, meaning that an attack on one member of the alliance will be treated as an attack on the entire alliance.