Israel supplying weapons to Ukraine will damage interstate relations, warns Russia

Amid the relentless war between Russia and Ukraine, several Western and European countries have been supplying lethal arms and ammunition to the war-embattled nation since the very first week of the brutal conflict. Though the US, UK, Poland and other allied nations have been assisting Ukraine with weapons since the initial days of the war, Israel has so far refused to provide military aid to Ukraine, despite US President Joe Biden's repeated appeals. Reacting to the reports of Tel Aviv supplying weapons to Kyiv, Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council Dmitry Medvedev, on Monday, warned that it would be a major blunder and underscored the move would damage all the interstate relations between the two countries. 

"Israel seems to be going to supply weapons to the Kyiv regime. A very rash step. It will destroy all interstate relations between our countries," he said in a Telegram post on Monday.

Further, in the post, he said that Israel might well recognize [Stepan] Bandera--  the leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN)-- and [Roman] Shukhevich--  who led the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA)-- as its heroes. Notably, both organisations are outlawed in Moscow.  It is worth mentioning the critical remarks from Medvedev came a day after Israel confirmed its intention to assist the war-torn nation with weapons following multiple media reports claiming Iran is delivering ballistic missiles to Russia. Earlier on Sunday, Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Nachman Shai took to Twitter and said the delivery of Iranian ballistic missiles to Russia impels Israel to deliver military aid to Ukraine. "There is no longer any doubt where Israel should stand in this bloody conflict," wrote Shai. "The time has come for Ukraine to receive military aid as well, just as the U.S. and NATO countries provide."

"Goal is not to destroy all of Ukraine", says Putin

Amid escalating war, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he does not wish to destroy Ukraine as a state but to resume the water supply to Crimea. According to Putin, if Ukraine had not disrupted the water supply to the region which was annexed in 2014 by Moscow, there would have been no retaliatory actions. "Our goal is not to destroy all of Ukraine. As for them, at some point, they just went and cut the water supply to Crimea, where 2.4 million people live. Our troops had to enter the area and reopen the water supply to Crimea. Had they refrained from taking that action, there would have been no retaliatory actions," said the Russian head while speaking to a press conference in Kazakhstan's capital, Astana.

Image: AP