Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that NATO vehicles with weapons and ammunition for Ukrainian troops that arrived in Ukraine would be considered by the Russian side as a legitimate target for destruction.

During the conference call, the minister stressed that the United States and its NATO allies "continue to pump weapons into Ukraine."

“Any transport of the North Atlantic Alliance that arrived on the territory of the country with weapons or materiel for the needs of the Ukrainian armed forces is considered by us as a legitimate target for destruction,” Shoigu said.

The minister noted that in the course of the special operation, Russian servicemen show courage and bravery and honorably fulfill their military duty, ensuring the safety of the population of Donbass.

“The Russian armed forces will continue to fulfill all the tasks set by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief,” the head of the defense department said.

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also noted at a press conference in late April that Western weapons in Ukraine are a legitimate target for the Russian Armed Forces.

“As soon as foreign weapons appear on the territory of Ukraine, this is a legitimate target for our special military operation,” the minister said.

In addition, in an interview with the Xinhua news agency, the foreign minister noted that Washington and NATO should stop transferring weapons and ammunition to Kyiv if they really want to resolve the Ukrainian crisis.

The minister said that the people of Ukraine do not need Stinger man-portable air defense systems and Javelin anti-tank missiles, but urgent humanitarian issues.

The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, also noted that Western countries should stimulate negotiations, and not increase arms supplies. 

“It seems to me that they, as if biting the bit, are competing to see who will supply the most weapons and everything that can be used to kill to Ukraine, and at the same time they say that they are for peace and that hostilities must end.

Does not work.

It is illogical, I would say, contradictory, ”she said in the Evening with Vladimir Solovyov program on the Russia 1 TV channel. 

In turn, the press secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov noted that the tendency to pump heavy weapons to Ukraine and other countries threatens the security of the continent and provokes instability.

On April 13, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov said that over the past month and a half, Washington had supplied Kyiv with weapons worth $1.65 billion. He drew attention to the fact that since the start of the special military operation, the size of Western military assistance to Ukraine has increased.

“All these people are well-armed due to the fact that for the past eight years, NATO member states have been actively supplying weapons, ammunition, and military equipment to Ukraine.

Over the past month and a half, Washington alone has supplied weapons to Kyiv for a total of $1.65 billion, providing hundreds of Stinger MANPADS, thousands of Javelin ATGMs, grenade launchers and other types of weapons, ”RIA Novosti quoted him as saying.

The Deputy Foreign Minister stressed that Kyiv does not control either these deliveries or the actions of Ukrainian militants, and therefore these weapons may end up on the black market in other countries.

As the American television channel CNN noted, the US authorities often cannot track exactly where the weapons sent to Ukraine end up. 

“We have reliable information for a short time.

But when it gets into the fog of conflict, we practically don't have it.

It falls into a large black hole, and after a short period of time you have almost no idea where it is, ”said one of the channel’s sources familiar with US intelligence.

The material notes that in the long term, some of these weapons may end up in the hands of other military and members of combat formations, which the United States did not intend to arm.

On February 21, during an address to the Russians, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the West was persistently carrying out a military pumping of the Kyiv regime.

“The United States alone, since 2014, has allocated billions of dollars for these purposes, including the supply of weapons, equipment, and training of specialists.

In recent months, Western weapons are coming to Ukraine just in a continuous stream - defiantly, in front of the whole world, ”he stressed.