US will continue to provide Ukraine with weapons despite attack on Moscow – White House
John Kirby (Photo:Evelyn Hockstein/REUTERS)
Against the backdrop of recent drone
attacks on Moscow by unknown forces, the United States will continue
providing Ukraine with everything it needs to protect its sovereign territory,
White House National Security spokesman John Kirby said at a press briefing on
May 31.
At the same time, he reiterated that Washington does not approve of attacks on Russian territory.
"The Biden administration has been clear, privately and publicly, with the Ukrainians that we don't support attacks on Russian soil," CNN quotes Kirby.
"We are going to continue to give them what they need to defend themselves and defend their territory, Ukrainian soil, but we don't support attacks on in Russia."
Kirby noted that the White House agrees that the Ukrainian people have the right to self-defense, but they fear a possible escalation of the conflict.
"We agree that Ukrainians has the right of self-defense — my goodness, over the last 15 months, we've been doing very little else other than helping them defend themselves and defend their territory against this Russian aggression,” the official said.
“What we have said is we don't want to encourage or enable attacks inside Russia, because we don't want to see the war escalate beyond the violence has already visited upon the Ukrainian people.”
The White House also noted that they are still trying to obtain information about the drone attack on Moscow on May 30, but there is still nothing concrete to report on that.
Kirby stressed that Ukrainian officials assured the United States that they will not use U.S.-provided equipment for attacks inside Russia.
“They have given us assurances that they won't use our equipment to strike inside Russia; but once it goes to them, it belongs to them (the Ukrainians),” he concluded.
On May 30, Moscow was attacked by several small drones carrying explosive payloads. The Russian Ministry of Defense and dictator Vladimir Putin blamed Ukraine for this.
Ukrainian officials deny Kyiv’s involvement in the attacks on the Russian capital.
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