Moscow presses Washington and Ankara over weapons promised to Kyiv

Russia's foreign ministry has asked the United States and Turkey for clarification about alleged plans to supply weapons to Ukraine. The request came from spokesperson Maria Zakharova.

"Attempts to use the rhetoric of peace while supplying weapons to the Ukrainian Nazis inevitably undermine mutual trust," Zakharova said, using the formula Russian diplomacy applies to the government in Kyiv. She added that it is not yet too late to assess the situation clearly.

The core of the statement concerns military effect more than principle. In Moscow's account the deliveries do not change the course of the conflict and only damage bilateral relations. The ministry has repeated this position for months, and has lately aimed it in particular at Ankara, with which Russia maintains a relationship unlike the one it has with other NATO countries.

Turkey's role

Turkey has presented itself since the start of the conflict as a possible mediator, hosting the Istanbul talks and brokering the Black Sea grain agreement. At the same time it supplies Ukraine with domestically produced military systems. It is the coexistence of those two roles that Moscow openly disputes.

On the parallel front of relations between major powers, president Donald Trump published a message about his relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, saying the two get along extremely well. They last met on 30 June 2019 at Panmunjom, following the 2018 and 2019 summits in Singapore and Vietnam.

Washington is also pressing Lithuania to withdraw from the International Criminal Court. The government in Vilnius has announced no decision.