Tue 18 January 2022:
In response to fears of a Russian invasion, the United Kingdom has begun supplying Ukraine with anti-tank weapons, and Canada has reportedly deployed a small contingent of special forces to Kyiv.
The news comes after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov strongly denied US claims last week that Moscow was preparing a pretext to invade Ukraine if diplomacy failed to achieve its goals.
While Moscow denies plans for an attack on Ukraine and has deployed 100,000 troops near the country’s border, it has threatened to take unspecified military action unless the West agrees to a list of demands, including barring Kyiv from ever joining NATO.
NATO’s eastward expansion is seen by Russia as an existential threat.
However, Washington and its allies have flatly rejected Moscow’s demands, and negotiations between Russia and the United States in Geneva, as well as a related NATO-Russia meeting in Brussels, ended without a breakthrough last week.
Kyiv has since requested arms from Western countries to help it defend itself.
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said in the British parliament on Monday that the UK had “taken the decision to supply Ukraine with light anti-armour defensive weapon systems”.
The first weapons arrived on Monday, and a small group of British personnel would provide training for a limited time, he said, without specifying the number or type of weapons being sent.
But he added, “They are not strategic weapons and pose no threat to Russia. They are to use in self-defence.
“These are short-range …. but nevertheless it would make people pause and think what they were doing and if tanks were to roll into Ukraine, invade it, then they would be part of the defence mechanism.”
Global News reported in Canada that Ottawa had dispatched special forces operators to Ukraine.
According to the TV broadcaster, the unit will identify ways to assist the Ukrainian government and assist in the development of evacuation plans for Canadian diplomatic personnel in the event of a full-scale invasion, citing unnamed sources.
The news was released as Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly met with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal in Kyiv on Monday to discuss efforts to deter Russia’s “aggressive actions.”
According to the BELTA news agency, Belarus Security Council Secretary Alexander Volfovich said on Monday that Russian troops had begun arriving in the country for the exercise.
Russia has accused the Ukrainian leadership of hatching plans to use force to reclaim control of Russian-backed rebel-held territories in eastern Ukraine, in addition to denying having plans to attack its neighbor. The claim has been refuted by Ukrainian authorities.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:
TWITTER (CLICK HERE)
https://twitter.com/IpIndependent
FACEBOOK (CLICK HERE)
https://web.facebook.com/ipindependent
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
