MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia takes an “extremely negative” view of Britain’s decision to supply Ukraine with more military hardware such as long-range attack drones, but does not believe London’s help will change the course of the conflict, the Kremlin said on Monday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy arrived in Britain on Monday with a promise of long range attack drones on top of cruise missiles pledged last week, as he tours Europe to try to source new arms for a counter-offensive against Russia.
Asked about Britain’s military aid, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said:
“We take an extremely negative view of this. Britain is trying to be one of the leading countries which keeps pumping weapons into Ukraine.”
He said the impact of Britain’s military aid would not be significant and would ultimately only make things worse for Ukraine.
“It cannot have any significant or major impact on the course of the Special Military Operation,” he said, using the phrase the Kremlin uses to describe Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine.
“But it all leads to more destruction, to further military action and so on. So for Ukraine, it makes things much more complex.”
The Russian defence ministry was cited on Monday by Russian news agencies as saying its air defence forces had shot down a British-supplied Storm Shadow cruise missile fired by Ukraine.
Reuters was unable to confirm the report.
Zelenskiy says he needs all the weapons he can get if Ukraine’s long-expected counter-offensive is to meet all of its goals.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
