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NATO’s “game-changing” support from the West has sparked a furious backlash in the Kremlin, Stefano Sannino, secretary general of the European Union‘s European External Action Service told a press conference in Japan. Mr Sannino warned that Putin could now look to escalate attacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine in response to Western support.
Mr Sannino told the press conference: “I think that this latest development in terms of armed supply is just an evolution of the situation and of the way Russia started moving the war into a different stage.”
He said German and US tank provisions are meant to help Ukrainians defend themselves in the war, rather than making them attackers.
“I think that this latest development in terms of armed supply is just an evolution of the situation and of the way Russia started moving the war into a different stage,” Sannino said. He added that Russia is making “indiscriminate attacks” on civilians and cities and no longer military targets.
The EU is not moving the war into a different stage but is “just giving the possibility of saving lives and allowing the Ukrainians to defend (themselves) from these barbaric attacks,” Mr Sannino said.
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It comes after Germany and the United States upped the ante in Russia‘s 11-month war by promising Wednesday to send high-tech battle tanks to Ukraine and green-lighting other allies to do the same.
Along with Germany and the US, Britain, Poland, the Netherlands, and Sweden are among the nations that have sent or announced plans to supply hundreds of tanks and heavy armored vehicles to fortify Ukraine as it enters a new phase of the war and tries to break through entrenched Russian lines.
Gian Gentile, a US Army veteran and senior historian with the Rand think tank, said the M1 Abrams and the Leopards would give Ukraine a “mechanized armored punching force.”
The British government has said UK forces will start training Ukrainian troops on how to use and fix Challenger 2 tanks.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has announced Ukrainian crews will start their training in Germany on German-made Marders, which are infantry fighting vehicles, while training on the heavier Leopard 2 tanks would start “a little later.”
“In any case, the aim with the Leopards is to have the first company in Ukraine by the end of March, beginning of April,” he added. “I can’t say the precise day.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the move to provide Ukraine with modern tanks reflected the West’s growing involvement in the conflict.
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“We categorically disagree with that.”
“Moscow views everything that has been done by the alliance and the capitals I have mentioned as direct involvement in the conflict,” he added.
“We can see it growing.”
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