The Foreign Ministry pointed to the expansion of the geography of the special operation due to the supply of weapons to Kyiv

The provision of Western long-range weapons to Ukraine will lead to the expansion of the geographical tasks of the special operation, said Alexander Darchiev, director of the North American Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

“As for the correlation of massive deliveries of Western weapons to Kyiv with the course and timing of the special military operation, it was clearly identified by Sergey Lavrov. Pumping Ukraine with more long-range weapons systems will lead to the fact that the geographical objectives of the special operation will be pushed even further,” he said (quoted from TASS).

Darchiev noted that the Russian authorities cannot allow the presence on Ukrainian territory of weapons that pose a threat to Russia and its controlled areas, as well as the DPR and LPR.

Western countries have been supplying weapons to Ukraine since the beginning of the military special operation. At the end of May, US President Joe Biden signed the law “On Additional Appropriations to Ukraine for 2022” $40 billion. Most of the funds are used to pay for arms supplies. On July 29, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken that the weapons that NATO is supplying to Kyiv are being used against civilians.

Discussions about the supply of arms to Ukraine led to retired Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi. Disagreements arose between his government and the largest party in the ruling coalition, the Five Star Movement, including on the Ukrainian issue. The leader of the movement, former Prime Minister Giuseppe Conti, demanded that the authorities not supply Kyiv with weapons and concentrate on a peaceful settlement. And on June 21, Conte, according to Bloomberg, even threatened to leave the coalition if the Draghi government did not stop arms supplies to Ukraine.