Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov made his remarks at an online press conference on international affairs on Monday. Earlier on June 1, the U.S. announced that it would provide a new military aid package to Ukraine, including delivering HIMARS weapons and ammunition.
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On the occasion, the top diplomat said it was a mistake to simplify the current situation to the formula "had there been no special operation, there would have been no weapons supplies."
"The point is that we had been warning Great Britain, the United States and other NATO members for 20 years: 'Dear friends, you signed the commitment in 1999 that no state will strengthen its security at the expense of other states' security and so why can't you do that? Why did it turn out to be a lie? And instead, you say: 'get away from us; we admit whom we want.' And you have expanded five times closer to our borders," Lavrov added.
On June 1, the U.S. announced that it would provide a new military aid package to Ukraine, including delivering HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System) weapons and ammunition. According to U.S. officials, the strike range of a wheeled HIMARS light rocket launcher would not exceed 80 km.
Kiev, for its part, said that U.S. rocket systems would not operate against targets on Russian territory. In this regard, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Kiev's claims that it would not use U.S. rockets against targets on Russian territory were worthless and unreliable.
Britain also said it intended to supply Ukraine with similar M270 rocket systems with an attack range of 70 km. According to the U.K. Ministry of Defense, that step was in coordination with the U.S.