MOSCOW: The Kremlin on Thursday warned against new Western weapons supplies to Ukraine as French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi arrived in Kyiv.
“I would like to hope that the leaders of these three states and the President of Romania will not only focus on supporting Ukraine by further pumping Ukraine with weapons,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
He added that it would be “absolutely useless and will cause further damage to the country.”
The leaders of the European Union’s biggest economies are making their first trip to Ukraine since Russia sent troops to Ukraine on February 24.
They are expected to hold talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“Let’s hope they will encourage President Zelensky to really look at the state of affairs,” Peskov said.
Also on Thursday, former Russian president and deputy head of the country’s Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, said the visit of the European leaders will be of no use.
“European fans of frogs, liverwurst and spaghetti love visiting Kyiv. With zero use,” Medvedev said on Twitter in English.
“Promised EU membership and old howitzers to Ukraine, lushed up on gorilka and went home by train,” he said, referring to Ukraine’s vodka. “It won’t bring Ukraine closer to peace.”
Ukraine has recently received French-made self-propelled Caesar howitzers.
The trio of European leaders arrived in Ukraine by train earlier on Thursday.
Romanian leader Klaus Iohannis joined them in the battle-scarred Kyiv suburb of Irpin.
The visit comes as Ukraine is pushing to be given official candidate status to join the EU.