MOSCOW. March 24 (Interfax) - The parliamentary group of the A Just Russia party has called for the right of the Russian president to send troops to Ukraine to be reinstated if the United States supplies lethal weapons to the country.
"If the United States actually starts to deliver lethal weapons to Ukraine we should openly back the militias, for instance, with weapons, and reinstate the president's right to send troops to the Ukrainian territory," parliamentary group first deputy head Mikhail Yemelyanov told reporters on Tuesday.
The Russian authorities "should be adamant [under such circumstances], we cannot allow Ukraine to transform into an international fighter hostile towards Russia, armed to the teeth and governed by anti-Russian, Russophobic authorities," he said.
Yemelyanov called the declarations of possible delivery of lethal weapons to Ukraine by White House representatives and the demands that the U.S. president sanction the supplies deliveries provocative.
"These statements demonstrate that the United States is completely disinterested in de-escalating the Ukraine conflict. Quite the opposite, the longer the war lasts the better it would be for the United States," the politician presumed.
"Our parliament should not overlook such statements," he added.
The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a resolution recommending the president to begin the delivery of lethal weapons to Ukraine.