MOSCOW. March 5 (Interfax) - Kyiv needs U.S. weapon supplies to accelerate a military solution to the Donbas crisis, Federation Council Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Konstantin Kosachyov said.
"Ukraine is seeking to leave behind the Minsk Agreements and to accelerate a military solution to the conflict, and additional weapons and this demagogy about the external aggression being maintained already over many years are needed for this," Kosachyov told Interfax on Friday, commenting on the U.S.' decision to supply such lethal weapons as Javelin anti-tank missile systems to Ukraine.
"This is news with a big minus, primarily from the point of view of the prospects of evolving internal Ukrainian crisis," the Russian senator said.
This is happening at the backdrop of the Ukrainian Donbas reintegration law, by means of which Kyiv is trying to sabotage the implementation of the Minsk Agreements, he said.
"There are actually a lot of written and unwritten international rules, which, to put it mildly, do not recommend that various countries transfer weapons to the areas of conflicts," Kosachyov said.
In 2000, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) adopted the Document on Small Arms and Light Weapons, which contains a number of general criteria regarding weapon exports, he said.
"Under this document each member country is committed to avoid the issuance of export licenses in those cases, when there is an obvious danger that these weapons could be used for violating and thwarting human rights and fundamental freedoms, and could lead to dragging out or escalating any current armed conflict. It is the Ukrainian case, isn't?" the Russian senator said.
Meanwhile, in 2000, the Nobel Peace Prize laureates also drew up the International Code of Conduct on Arms Transfers posted on the UN site among its documents, he said.
"The text indicates that arms transfers may be conducted only if the proposed recipient country 'is not involved in an armed conflict in the region,' 'does not advocate national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence [...],' 'is not engaged in armed actions or practices which are likely to lead to a significant number of displaced persons or refugees," Kosachyov said.
The same document stipulates that weapons transferred on an international basis "are frequently used to commit acts of aggression between and within states," he said.
All this "is directly related to the current Ukrainian situation and to Kyiv as its primary party," Kosachyov said.
"It is clear that with all dishonoring the United States is displaying toward international rules, they would not like to resemble a country, which is fragrantly encouraging all the same protracted conflict. And this is why with Kyiv's thankful aid the propagandistic 'operation aggression' was launched and seeks to convince the world that it is not an internal conflict, but self-defense from an external aggression that would give a free hand both to the Kyiv authorities and their foreign patrons," the committee's head said.
"Alas, the result is obvious: a silly goal 'to stop further expansion of the Russian aggression' will definitely not be achieved due to the absence of its target. But 'the funerals' of the Minsk Agreements will continue, as is the bloodshed in Donbas lingering," he said.