Russia calls Ukraine's reported plan to acquire US missiles 'provocative'

Russia has censured as “a provocation” a reported Ukrainian request for Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile systems from the United States, stressing that considering such supplies would deal a setback to efforts to ease an ongoing crisis between Moscow and the West over Ukraine.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov made the remark on Wednesday, after Russian media reported that Kiev had turned to the US with a request to deploy several battalions of the US anti-ballistic THAAD missile defense systems near Kharkov.

Ryabkov said if Washington seriously considered such supplies, it would reduce the odds of a political diplomatic resolution to the standoff over Ukraine, the country’s state-owned news agency RIA quoted him as saying.

The THAAD is built and integrated by Lockheed Martin, America’s biggest arms maker. The advanced weapon is designed to shoot down short-, medium-, and intermediate-range ballistic missiles using advanced detection radars designed by Raytheon, another US arms maker.

Separately, Alexander Pankin, another Russian deputy foreign minister, said Russia had called on the United States “to avoid stupidity” and not deteriorate the situation further, as he discussed reports about the potential delivery of THAAD systems to Ukraine.

“We still call on our American colleagues, with whom we are in dialogue at various levels, including the highest level, not to do stupid things, to behave prudently, not to use the situation to lead it further and further into a dead end, from which it will be difficult to find a way out. We will use further diplomatic methods on our part,” Pankin told a round table discussion at the Valdai forum on Wednesday.

Pankin further said Moscow hoped the tensions over Ukraine as well as Russia’s security demands from the West would be resolved diplomatically.

The latest development comes amid reports of Western countries deploying additional troops and military hardware to Eastern Europe as part of efforts to reinforce NATO’s military buildup in the region against an alleged Russian threat.

British PM Johnson to visit Poland for talks on Ukraine

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is scheduled to visit Poland on Thursday, amid growing tensions over the security situation in Ukraine.

Johnson will visit the British soldiers stationed in Poland together with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and will also meet President Andrzej Duda, an unnamed Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman told Reuters on Wednesday.

British Defense Minister Ben Wallace has said that Britain would send a further 350 troops to Poland.

This comes as the US has already ordered the deployment of 3,000 troops to Poland, Romania, and Germany.

NATO’s eastern member Poland borders Russia and Ukraine while Romania borders Ukraine.

SS