Russia claims Western-supplied arms to Ukraine 'spreading across Middle East'
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has censured the huge supply of military equipment to Ukraine by the West, claiming that some of the Kiev-bound weapons are spreading across the West Asia region and ending up on the black market.
Shoigu said in televised remarks on Tuesday that Ukraine had received more than 28,000 tons of military cargo since the start of the Russian military offensive against it, and some of the Western arms were appearing in West Asia, without providing any details to back up his claim.
"In the hope of prolonging the conflict in Ukraine, the collective West is continuing large-scale arms supplies to the Kiev regime," Shoigu said. "According to information at our disposal, some of the foreign weapons supplied by the West to Ukraine are spreading across the Middle Eastern region and are also ending up on the black market."
Russian President Vladimir Putin had a day earlier ordered the country's troops to press their offensive deeper into the eastern Ukrainian region of the Donbass after Russia seized the strategic city of Lysychansk, with Shoigu announcing that the Lugansk region had come under full control of Russian troops.
The Russian defense minister stressed on Tuesday that the offensive would continue until "the tasks set by the supreme commander-in-chief have been completed."
Putin on Monday congratulated Russian forces on "liberating" Lugansk and said the troops involved in the operation needed to rest but other military units should continue fighting.
Serhiy Gaidai, the governor of the Lugansk region, said in an interview with local media that Russia planned to shift the main focus of its military offensive to seizing the neighboring Donetsk region after capturing Lugansk.
Reiterating Ukrainian calls for more arms from Western allies, Gaidai said his country's forces could launch a counteroffensive when they had sufficient long-range weapons.
Back in February, the Russian leader signed a decree recognizing breakaway Lugansk and Donetsk as independent republics. Russia launched the military offensive in Ukraine on February 24. At the time, the Russian president said one of the goals of what he called a "special military operation" was to "de-Nazify" Ukraine.
The military operation has led to a deeper feud between Russia and the West, with the United States and its allies slapping unprecedented sanctions on Moscow and flooding Ukraine with advanced weapons.
Russia has said the Western flood of weapons into Ukraine and the sanctions would prolong the ongoing war.
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