Russia rebukes NATO over arming Ukraine

West should not supply weapons funds and mercenaries, Duma chairman says

MOSCOW－The United States and NATO must stop supplying weapons and sending mercenaries to Ukraine, a senior Russian official said on Saturday.

"Weapons and ammunition are supplied by NATO countries. Mercenaries who fill the ranks of (Ukraine's) nationalist battalions are recruited in the countries of the North Atlantic Alliance with the consent of their leadership," Vyacheslav Volodin, chairman of Russia's lower house of parliament, or the Duma, posted on Telegram.

"So when (US President Joe) Biden and his NATO colleagues call for peace, they must first start with themselves. It is their fault that the settlement of the situation in Ukraine, its demilitarization and denazification are being delayed."

If Western countries want peace, they should channel funds not to military supplies, but humanitarian assistance to the Ukrainian people, he said.

His comments come as a Ukrainian official confirmed that the country will receive more weapons from the US.

Ukraine will receive a new shipment of US weapons within days, including Javelin and Stinger missiles, Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov said in a televised interview on Saturday.

"The (weapons) will be on the territory of our country in the nearest future. We are talking about days."

NATO countries have delivered planeloads of weapons shipments to bolster Ukraine's military in recent days.

According to a Reuters report, the US has informally raised with Turkey the unlikely possibility of sending its Russian-made S-400 missile defense systems to Ukraine to help it fight, citing three sources familiar with the matter.

The Turkish authorities have not commented on any US suggestion or proposal relating to the transfer to Ukraine of the S-400 systems, which have been a point of longstanding contention between the two NATO allies.

Turkish foreign ministry officials were not immediately available for comment.

Australia expanded its sanctions against Russia on Sunday by banning all exports of alumina and bauxite and pledged more weapons assistance for Ukraine.

The export ban aims to impact aluminum production in Russia, which relies on Australia for 20 percent of its alumina.

'Unacceptable nature'

On Saturday Russia's President Vladimir Putin, in a phone conversation with Luxembourg's Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, referred to "the unacceptable nature of the military-biological activities of the United States in Ukraine", the Kremlin said in a statement.

Such activities pose a huge danger to both Russia and Europe as a whole, he was quoted as saying.

The two leaders discussed Russia's "military operation" in Ukraine, and Putin talked of missile attacks by Ukrainian security forces on cities in Donbass, the statement said.

Bettel said "no one stands to gain from these clashes; not Russia, not Europe and certainly not Ukraine", according to a statement on the official website of the Luxembourg government.

Bettel briefed Putin on contacts with leaders of Ukraine and other countries, and Putin outlined his assessments of Russian-Ukrainian peace talks, the statement said.

On Thursday, the Russian Foreign Ministry asked the US to provide all information on the activities of US-linked biological laboratories in Ukraine.

Amid continuing shelling, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Sunday that seven humanitarian corridors would open on Sunday to enable civilians to leave front line areas.

Ukraine has evacuated 190,000 people from such areas since the conflict began on Feb 24, Vereshchuk said on Saturday, though Ukraine and Russia blame each other for hobbling the process.

Satellite images on Friday from Maxar Technologies showed a long line of cars leaving the southeastern city of Mariupol as people tried to evacuate. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said more than 9,000 people had been able to leave the city the previous day.

Agencies - Xinhua