Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Anatoli Antonov, on Tuesday threatened the destruction of U.S. M1 Abrams tanks, as well as other military equipment of NATO countries, if they decide to supply them to Ukraine.
This was stated by the Russian ambassador in Washington in statements reported by TASS in response to the possibility that Germany will authorize the shipment of Leopard 2 tanks to Kiev, as reported by German media.
«There is no doubt that if the decision is made to transfer M1 Abrams to Kiev, our military will destroy American tanks in the same way as all other NATO equipment samples are destroyed,» Antonov asserted, claiming that Washington is «deliberately» trying to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia.
In this regard, he added that a possible shipment of tanks to Ukraine would be «another blatant provocation against Russia.» «If the United States decides to supply tanks, then justifying such a step with arguments about defensive weapons will definitely not work. This would be another blatant provocation against Russia,» the ambassador has related.
«An analysis of the whole sequence of Washington’s actions shows that the Americans are constantly raising military assistance to their puppets,» he has wielded, detailing that during the course of the war in Ukraine information has been leaked to the media on the eve of major deliveries of weapons and equipment to Kiev, as reported by the aforementioned media outlet.
Antonov accused the United States of giving «a green light to the use of US aid to attack Crimea», allegedly covering up crimes against the population of the Donbas, Zaporiyia and Kherson regions.
Earlier, it has emerged that the U.S. government is considering sending Ukraine a significant number of M1 Abrams tanks as part of a deal with Germany to unblock the delivery of its Leopard 2, the U.S. newspaper ‘The Wall Street Journal’ reported in its Tuesday edition.
Likewise, after several weeks of pressure on Berlin by Western powers -especially Poland and the Baltic countries-, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has agreed to supply these tanks to Ukraine, according to DPA. However, for the moment there is no official confirmation from the German Executive.
In recent weeks, Ukraine has been insistently demanding from its partners the delivery of German Leopard tanks, which require prior authorization from Berlin, whose reluctance had evidenced a new disagreement among Kiev’s allies, especially with regard to Poland and the Baltic countries, the most critical and belligerent with Germany’s misgivings.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
