The Kremlin said a request from top lawmakers from Russia's government party
to send military equipment to Donbass showed how seriously the country was
taking the crisis across the border in Ukraine.
Influential political groups argue it is a necessary response to recent arms
shipments by Western countries to Kiev. Earlier, Vladimir Vasilyev,
parliamentary leader of the United Russia party, made the request in a
statement.
"We understand that they are pumping Ukraine with missile systems, grenade
launchers and other supplies," he said.
“There are also instructors there to train them how to use this equipment.
This is a great danger. This is preparation for military action, and nothing
else. Military action against the peaceful residents living there," he said.
"We have waited a long time for a reasonable decision to win in Washington,
but this did not happen," he continued. "We only hear about sanctions, and
about weapons being sent to conflict zones," he said.
The Russian lawmaker compared the situation in Ukraine to Nazism and said it
was reminiscent of Stepan Bandera, the right-wing Ukrainian nationalist
leader whose organization massacred thousands of Poles and Jews in the
1940s.
"We cannot accept this," he said. Vasilyev said the United Russia Party was
concerned about the plight of Russians in the Donetsk People's Republic and
Lugansk People's Republic, the regions that split from Ukraine after the
2014 Maidan, when mass protests toppled former president Viktor Yanukovych.
Separatists there have been locked in a civil war with Ukraine ever since,
and Kiev accuses Moscow of helping them to stoke the conflict, which the
Kremlin denies.
“We have come to the understanding that we cannot abandon the people
according to the will of the regime in Kiev,” Vasilyev concluded.
His words won the support of Andrey Turchak, another leader of the United
Russia Party, in an appearance on state TV channel Russia-24. Turchak argued
that NATO, the US-led military bloc, was arming Ukraine.
"I think under these conditions Russia should provide the Donetsk People's
Republic and Lugansk with the necessary assistance, in the form of various
types of weaponry, to increase their defensive capabilities," he said.
Responding to the call, Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said the
United Russia Party's request for military assistance to the Donbass would
be something new. But Peskov insisted that Moscow had not previously sent
weapons to the region, despite accusations from the West.
"President Putin understands how sensitive this issue is for United Russia,"
Peskov continued.
"But at the moment he has no response to the initiative," he added.
Ukrainian and Western leaders have warned for months that they fear that
Russian President Vladimir Putin is planning an invasion of Ukraine, which
the Kremlin has denied.
Moscow meanwhile has asked for written assurances that NATO will not expand
into Ukraine or Georgia, a deal US negotiators say is impossible.
