Russia will 'destroy' Western weapons in Ukraine, warns Moscow's ambassador to US

Russia's forces will destroy the Western-supplied weaponry to Ukraine, including in the 2014 annexed territory of Crimea, Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov warned on Thursday, January 19, according to state-affiliated agency Tass. Antonov berated the United States, the UK, and ally nations for pumping assault weapons into Kyiv, threatening a retaliatory strike on their territory.The Russian ambassador's remark came as the US Department of State issued a statement, saying that Ukrainians may "acquire possibilities" of carrying out the attack against Russian troops in Crimea. 

"It is said that American MLRS HIMARS as well as Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles could be used in the future to launch the offensive in the Crimean direction," Antonov said, responding to a reporter's query. "Commentators naively believe that Russia will not respond to attacks on its territory," he warned. 

Russia's ambassador reminded the US, and other allied nations that it should be "clear for everyone, we will destroy any weapons supplied to Zelenskyy's regime by either the United States or NATO." He slammed United States' war-mongering rhetorics, saying that Washington was becoming "more and more belligerent" against Moscow. The US State Department through its "out-of-touch assertions," was instigating Ukraine "to carry out terrorist attacks in Russia," he was quoted as saying. He also warned that the weapons supplied by NATO will lead to more casualties in war. He then urged US and NATO to "think about" the statement made by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that the Russian Federation "cannot be defeated." 

Russia's Lavrov compares US provocation against Russia with Hitler's 

Russia Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in a speech derided the United States' recent arms supply to Ukraine calling for attacks on Crimea, saying that the US assembled a coalition of European countries to solve "the Russian question" in a similar fashion as Germany's Adolf Hitler in WWII. US provocations against Russia are the same as Hitler's against the Jews, said Lavrov, drawing a rebuke from the White House. Lavrov slammed the West for deploying the same tactics as Napoleon and the Nazis to subjugate Europe against the Russian Federation by using Ukraine as a proxy. Lavrov had also earlier created ripples for claiming that Nazi leader Hitler had "Jewish blood" as he accused Ukraine's leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy of genocide against the ethnic Russian speaking population in eastern Donbass region for eight years. 

"They [US and NATO] are waging war against our country with the same task: the 'final solution' of the Russian question,''' Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted. 

"Just as Hitler wanted a 'final solution' to the Jewish question, now, if you read Western politicians, they clearly say Russia must suffer a strategic defeat," he added.

Responding strongly against Lavrov's remarks, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said, "How dare he compare anything to the Holocaust, anything. Let alone a war that they started." 

Image: AP