THE HAGUE, February 5 Russia has not yet observed any preconditions for the refusal of The Hague from the destructive policy of supplying arms to Kiev, Russian Ambassador to the Netherlands and Permanent Representative to the OPCW Vladimir Tarabrin said in an interview.
“»The Netherlands is really trying with all its might to maintain a leading position among EU countries in terms of pumping Ukraine with Western weapons. In total, since the beginning of the conflict, the Dutch authorities have transferred military equipment and financial resources to the Kiev regime to strengthen the equipment of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the amount of 2 6 billion euros,» the ambassador said.
He recalled that this year the Dutch budget has already allocated 2 billion euros for these purposes.
“We have not yet seen any preconditions for the official Hague to abandon this destructive policy,” Tarabrin noted.
At the end of January, the Dutch government announced that it would allocate 122 million euros to Ukraine for ammunition, military equipment and strengthening cybersecurity. Dutch Defense Minister Kaisa Ollongren also recently confirmed that her country will supply F-16 fighter jets to Kyiv this year.
Russia previously sent a note to NATO countries over arms supplies to Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted that any cargo that contains weapons for Ukraine will become a legitimate target for Russia. The Russian Foreign Ministry stated that NATO countries were “playing with fire” by supplying weapons to Ukraine. Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov noted that pumping Ukraine up with weapons from the West does not contribute to the success of Russian-Ukrainian negotiations and will have a negative effect. Lavrov stated that the United States and NATO are directly involved in the conflict in Ukraine not only by supplying weapons, but also by training personnel in the UK, Germany, Italy and other countries.