Russia cautions the West: Don’t take your assets in our nation for granted
Maria Zakharova, a feisty spokesman for the foreign ministry, said at a...
MOSCOW: Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine on Thursday accused the Ukrainian military of shelling civilians with Western-supplied sophisticated multiple rocket launch systems and howitzers.
The United States announced at the beginning of June that it would provide Ukraine with M142 HIMARS multiple rocket launchers, which have a slightly longer range than their Russian and Soviet-made counterparts.
This will allow the Ukrainian military to destroy enemy forces while remaining out of reach.
In the past few weeks, several European countries, such as France and Germany, have also sent powerful howitzers to Ukraine.
“The new howitzers and HIMARS are already at work against the civilian population of our territory,” Roman Vedmedenko, deputy interior minister of the separatists in the Lugansk region, told Russian news outlets, without providing evidence.
“There is a constant influx of new weapons from Europe,” he added.
The claims could not be independently verified. Pro-Russian rebels frequently accuse Ukrainian soldiers of shelling civilians in areas they control.
At the end of February, Russia launched a significant military operation in Ukraine before concentrating its onslaught on the south and eastern Donbas, where pro-Russian separatists are engaged in combat with Ukrainian forces.
In the past few weeks, very violent artillery battles have destroyed many cities, including Severodonetsk, near Lugansk, which was taken by Moscow’s forces last week.
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