MOSCOW. Aug 24 (Interfax) - Kyiv's desire to get lethal weapons from the United States and the talks between Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis on the issue will be seen by Donbas as a threatening signal, Russian representative to the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine Boris Gryzlov said.
"The aspiration to get new lethal weapons from the United States, which President Petro Poroshenko has once again demonstrated is not quite consistent with the image of peacekeeper that the Ukrainian president wishes to wear. Such statements are particularly inappropriate on the eve of August 25, the effective date of the agreement stipulating for an indefinite ceasefire in Donbas, which the Contact Group in Minsk approved yesterday and the leaders of the Normandy Quartet countries upheld during the telephone talks on August 22," Gryzlov said on Thursday in commenting, at the request of Interfax, on the statement by Mattis who had said that Washington was considering lethal weapons provision to Ukraine.
Gryzlov is sure about the reaction the statement is going to prompt in southeastern Ukraine. "I would also like to note that this ambition to acquire lethal weapons that has been voiced once again is surely going to be perceived in Donbas as a very bad and threatening signal," Gryzlov said.