Moscow Warns Continued U.S. Arms to Ukraine Are ‘an Immediate Strategic Threat’

Oct. 5, 2022 (EIRNS)—In response to President Joe Biden’s announcement of the latest package of U.S. military aid to Ukraine, Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov warned that Moscow perceives it as “an immediate threat to the strategic interests of our country,” a statement with chilling implications, which should wake up people in the NATO countries.

“The administration’s decision to continue pumping the Kiev regime with heavy weapons only secures Washington’s status as a participant of the conflict,” Antonov said in a statement issued last night framed as a response to a reporter’s question. “We perceive this as an immediate threat to the strategic interests of our country. The supply of military products by the U.S. and its allies not only entails protracted bloodshed and new casualties, but also increases the danger of a direct military clash between Russia and Western countries.

“We call on Washington to stop its provocative actions that could lead to the most serious consequences,” he concluded.

Biden announced the new weapons package in a phone call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Oct. 4. According to the White House readout, Biden “also affirmed the continued readiness of the United States to impose severe costs on any individual, entity, or country that provides support to Russia’s purported annexation.”

Konstantin Vorontsov, a Deputy Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Department for Arms Nonproliferation and Control, had also warned representatives of many other nations participating in a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly First Committee earlier in the day, that U.S. supplies of weapons to Ukraine are pushing the situation closer to the point of a direct military confrontation between Russia and NATO. “The U.S. is ramping up the efforts to funnel weapons into Ukraine, provides intelligence data to its military, gets their militants and advisers involved in the conflict, which not only extends the hostilities and causes new victims, but also pushes the situation closer to a dangerous point of a direct military confrontation between Russia and NATO,” he said, according to a report by TASS.