Russian ambassador says US plans to give Ukraine carte blanche on weapons

MOSCOW: Russia believes that the United States will at some point remove all restrictions on the use of weapons supplied to Ukraine, the RIA news agency cited Russian ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov as saying on Friday.

“The current administration behaves like a person who extends one hand and holds a dagger behind their back with another one,” Antonov said, describing Washginton’s recent comments about Kyiv not being allowed to use US weapons for strikes deep into Russian territory as “goading”.

“...They are, essentially, laying ground (for a decision) to simply remove all the existing restrictions at a certain point, without much thought.”

The United States has provided Ukraine with more than $50 billion worth of military aid since 2022, but has limited the use of its weapons to Ukrainian soil and counterfire, defensive crossborder operations.

Antonov said serious dialogue with the U.S. would only become possible if it ends its “hostile” policy towards Russia, which includes the support of Ukraine and the implementation of sanctions against Moscow.