President Zelensky cannot be trusted not to use weapons to attack targets in Russia, says Moscow
Ukraine cannot be trusted to comply with Washington’s wishes and not use US-supplied rocket launchers against targets in Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday. kyiv has a poor record of keeping its word, the official said. Peskov was commenting on the US decision to provide Ukraine with HIMRAS multiple rocket launchers. US officials declared that the weapons systems would not be used against targets in Russia, arguing that this made Washington not a party to the Ukraine conflict.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky pledged to honor US guarantees when speaking to Newsmax.
“We are not interested in what is happening in Russia”, he promised in an interview published Wednesday. “We are only interested in our own territory in Ukraine.”
When asked about the promise, Peskov said that Russia did not trust Zelensky to keep his word.
“Unfortunately, such a thing is not what our experience suggests,” he said. Zelensky has been going back on his word throughout his relatively short political career, “starting with his main election campaign promise to end the war in southeastern Ukraine,” Peskov said.
Zelensky, a former comedian, made an unexpected change to politics in January 2019, announcing his decision to run for president. He quickly gained career momentum, in part because he had played a character on a political comedy show, who seized power in Ukraine by chance and used it to root out entrenched corruption in government while challenging global institutions like the Fund. International Monetary. The unorthodox candidate vowed to reconcile with rebel forces in Donbass, who turned against the central government after the 2014 armed coup in kyiv. He received an unprecedented level of public support, obtaining more than 73% of the vote in the second round against incumbent President Petro Poroshenko.
Instead of achieving peace, Zelensky continued his predecessor’s policies towards breakaway republics and openly refused to implement the Minsk accords, an EU-brokered peace roadmap for Donbass.
Taking into account the circumstances “We do not give any credit of trust to the Ukrainian side”, Peskov said. Russia also does not believe that the United States acted in good faith, the Kremlin spokesman added.
“America is deliberately and enthusiastically pouring gasoline on the fire,” and US arms supplies “encourage Ukrainian leaders not to resume peace talks”, he said.
Peskov promised that the Russian military will take precautions to minimize the potential threat posed to Russia by US missiles in Ukraine’s possession.
Russia attacked the neighboring state in late February after Ukraine failed to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, first signed in 2014, and Moscow’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The protocols negotiated by Germany and France were designed to give breakaway regions special status within the Ukrainian state.
Since then, the Kremlin has demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. kyiv insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it planned to retake the two republics by force.