Western aid convoys supplying Ukraine legitimate targets: Russian deputy foreign minister

Russian deputy foreign minister Sergey Ryabkov has warned that lethal aid being provided to Ukraine turns the West’s convoys into ‘legitimate targets’.

Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergey Ryabkov, has warned that lethal aid from American allies provided to Ukraine “turns these convoys into legitimate targets”.

In language that threatens to escalate the brutal war and peripherally involve Australia, Mr Ryabkov told Russian state television on Saturday: “We warned the United States that pumping of weapons from a number of countries it orchestrates is not just a dangerous move, it is a move that turns these convoys into legitimate targets.”

Australia has supplied $70m in aid to Ukraine, mainly lethal weapons and some humanitarian support, in concert with the US and Britain.

Much of the Western aid is being routed through southern Poland into western Ukraine.

Since the February 24 Russian invasion, the fighting has been centred in the south of Ukraine, as well as areas to the north of Kyiv.

But on Friday, in a new move, Russia began to target military airfields in the west of the country, with missiles attacking Ivano-Frankivsk and Lutsk, which raised alarms about the security of transporting convoys of the weapons inside Ukraine.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has warned that convoys supplying “Ukraine are “legitimate targets: Picture: AFP

Mr Ryabkov said Moscow had warned “about the consequences of the thoughtless transfer to Ukraine of weapons like man-portable air defence systems, anti-tank missile systems and so on”.

The US on Saturday announced it has authorised new shipments of anti-tank and anti-aircraft systems and small arms for Ukraine.

Mr Ryabkov said Washington had not taken Moscow’s warnings seriously, adding Russia and the US were not holding any negotiation processes on Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday held a lengthy call with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

As Russian troops closed in on Kyiv and continued to refuse aid or humanitarian corridors for the increasingly dire situation in the eastern city of Mariupol, French presidential aides advised that Mr Putin “did not appear ready to end the war” in Ukraine.

Several agreed humanitarian corridors allowing the movement of people outside the besieged cities once again broke down.

Ukraine’s intelligence service said Russian troops killed seven people, including one child, after firing at a convoy that was evacuating women and children from the village of Peremoha in the Kyiv region. The seventh attempt to supply much needed food and medicines to Mariupol, and to allow desperate residents out of the Black Sea city, once again failed.