The Ukrainian army is violating the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations by soliciting foreign citizens to join the International Legion of the Ukrainian Territorial Defence, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.
She said the Ukrainian military is openly campaigning in several countries including the United States and Britain to join the so-called International Legion of Ukrainian Territorial Defence.
Zakharova stated: ‘As for the actions of Ukraine itself, it is obvious that the recruitment of mercenaries goes beyond the normal function of diplomatic missions.
‘I would like to remind you that according to the provisions of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the protection of the interests of the country in the host state should be carried out within the limits allowed by international law.
‘Such laws, as far as we know, are adopted in most Western countries.
However, they literally ignore them.’
Meanwhile, Ukraine has begun using longer-range ballistic missiles against Russia that were secretly provided by the US, American officials have confirmed.
The weapons were sent as part of a previous US support package, and arrived this month.
Ukrainian government officials said they were not announced publicly to maintain Ukraine’s ‘operational security’.
They have already been used at least once to strike Russian targets in Crimea.
Further US aid is now heading to Kiev.
More American weaponry is expected to be sent imminently, after President Joe Biden signed off on Wednesday a new package of economic and military support for Ukraine worth $61 billion (£49 billion).
The missiles are the longer-range version of the Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), a state department spokesman confirmed on Wednesday.
The US previously supplied Ukraine with a mid-range version of the ATACMS, but had resisted sending anything more powerful.
The Ukrainian regime has long called for the systems, which can fire missiles up to 300 kilometres (186 miles). Biden is said to have secretly given the green light in February.
Speaking on Wednesday, the US state department spokesman, Vedant Patel, confirmed that the provision of the longer-range ATACMS had been ‘at the president’s direct direction’.
The US ‘did not announce this at the onset in order to maintain operational security for Ukraine at their request’.
It is not clear how many of the weapons have already been sent, but US National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, said Washington planned to send more.
He said: ‘They will make a difference. But as I’ve said before at this podium… there is no silver bullet.
The longer-range ATACMS give Ukraine the ability to strike deeper into Russian-held areas; particularly bases, storage facilities and logistics hubs.
The Russian Department of Defence said on Wednesday that the new weaponry ‘will not fundamentally change the outcome’ of the war.
Recent months have seen Kiev step up its calls for Western assistance as its stocks of ammunition are depleted and Russia makes steady gains.
The new aid package that was rubber-stamped by Biden on Wednesday follows months of gridlock amid opposition to the aid from some in Congress.
Reacting to the package, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said: ‘Now we will do everything to make up for half a year spent in debates and doubts.
‘What the Russian occupier was able to do during this time, what Putin is now planning, we must turn against him.’
Zelensky recently warned that a Russian offensive was expected in the coming weeks after Ukraine’s loss of the city of Avdiivka during the winter.
Ukrainian forces have suffered from a shortage of ammunition and air defence systems in recent months and officials have blamed delays in military aid from the US and other Western allies for the loss of lives and territory.
Sullivan said on Wednesday it was ‘certainly possible that Russia could make additional tactical gains in the coming weeks’.
Since Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine on 24 February 2022, tens of thousands of people, most of them soldiers, have been killed or injured on both sides and millions of people have fled their homes.
- Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko believes that the United States has shifted the conflict in Europe onto the shoulders of the EU and NATO in order to weaken Russia and deal with China at the same time.
Lukashenko said: ‘The goal is to distract, drown Russia in the war with Ukraine, weaken it with war and sanctions.
‘Then Russia will have other things to worry about than a union with China, unity. And in the meantime, to deal with China, to drag into these squabbles, if possible, some “interested parties”: AUKUS (defence alliance of Australia, the UK and the US) – the NATO of the Pacific Ocean, adding to it Japan and South Korea.
‘This is key to the US strategy to rule the world.’
Lukashenko specified that the US had organised the conflict in Europe, in this case in Ukraine, and ‘shifted it onto the shoulders of the European Union and NATO, promising to help with money’.
- The West introduces sanctions banning Russian goods, then bends the rules when their industries need these products to survive, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
‘We understand the West’s selective approach. We see that, according to some parameters, companies in Europe and other regions can hardly maintain their competitiveness if they completely abandon our products,’ the Kremlin official said, commenting on the Canadian government granting permission to use Russian titanium for Airbus.
According to Peskov, ‘in such cases, Westerners act at their discretion, without paying attention to conventions.’
On Wednesday, it was reported that the Canadian government had given Airbus the go-ahead to use Russian titanium, despite sanctions imposed by Ottawa in February against the Russian corporation VSMPO-Avisma, the world’s largest titanium producer.
Airbus repeatedly warned that restrictions on Russian titanium could deal a severe blow to the Western aircraft industry, while the Russian economy would be largely unaffected.
Russia’s battlegroup West has taken control of better positions and inflicted firepower damage on the troops and equipment of five Ukrainian brigades, the Russian Defence Ministry said in a daily bulletin of the special military operation.
The ministry said: ‘Units of the battlegroup West seized better positions and inflicted firepower damage on the manpower and equipment of the Ukrainian 14th and 63rd mechanised brigades, 3rd tank brigade, 3rd assault brigade, and the 77th airmobile brigade.
This took place in the areas of the settlements of Stelmakhovka in the Lugansk People’s Republic, Glushkovka in the Kharkov Region, Torskoye in the Donetsk People’s Republic, as well as the Serebryansky Forestry.
Ukraine in this area lost up to 30 servicemen, two pickup trucks, three US-made 155mm M777 howitzers, and three multiple launch rocket systems: a Czech Vampire system, a Grad system and a US-made HIMARS.
