‘Provocation against Russia’ – MPs blast fresh US Congress call to arm Ukraine

Several lawmakers, including the chair of the State Duma Foreign Relations Committee, have called the US Congress’ call to send “lethal aid” to Ukraine a threat to the peace process and a direct provocation aimed at Russia.

“If [President] Barack Obama follows the suggestions formulated by the Congress, there will be no difference between him and George W. Bush, John McCain or Mitt Romney,” Committee Chief Aleksey Pushkov told TASS on Tuesday.

“Obama has become president on an anti-war agenda. This did not prevent him from almost starting a war in Syria, losing the control over the situation in Iraq and continuing the war in Afghanistan, but in general Obama’s doctrine means withdrawal of the US forces from wars in remote countries,” he said.

“If Obama remains faithful to his doctrine, he should be genuine and understand that the resolution is a provocation against Russia, against a nuclear power and that it is threatening to escalate the whole conflict and the situation in general. If he remains faithful to the principles announced during election campaigns the United States would not use this option. But the pressure on Obama is enormous,” Pushkov added.

The head of the leftist Fair Russia, Mikhail Yemelyanov, said that the US is seeking to arm Ukraine at any cost because it’s not interested in the real de-escalation of the Donbass conflict.

“The end of the Ukrainian conflict is simply against the US interests. This is why it seeks to arm Ukraine at any cost. If they really start to supply weapons to Ukraine I suggest two things – first, send weapons to the Donetsk paramilitaries and secondly to give our president the right to send Russian military to Ukraine,” Yemelyanov said.

First deputy head of the majority United Russia party, Frants Klintsevich, noted that the Congress resolution was just a loud statement that was unlikely to be implemented in real life.

“Their president will not use the Congress’s recommendation in the announced volume. It would be quite complicated because of international treaties and the UN charter that expressly forbid to supply weapons to territories where a war is taking place,” Klintsevich told LifeNews website.

However, the lawmaker also noted that the current situation could be caused by certain politicians’ desire to “legalize” the weapons that had been already supplied from the US to Ukraine.

On Monday the House of Representatives in Washington passed a non-binding resolution calling on Obama to send lethal weapons to Ukraine, despite the fragile truce in the east.

READ MORE: US refusal to send weapons to Ukraine gives peace a chance – top Russian MP

Earlier this month, German Ambassador to Washington Peter Wittig said in an interview with AP that Obama had agreed not to send lethal defensive aid to Ukraine after meeting Chancellor Angela Merkel in the White House in February. The diplomat added that the two leaders agreed that it was important to give some space for the diplomatic and political efforts in settling the Ukrainian crisis.