Russian Foreign Ministry: US Supplies Weapons & Acts as Gun Pointers in Ukrainian Conflict

In April, Moscow sent a note to Washington warning that US and NATO arms supplies to Kiev are exacerbating the Ukraine conflict and can lead to unpredictable consequences.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has stated that US advisors act as "gun pointers" in the Ukraine conflict.

“The supply of weapons by the United States to Ukraine is accompanied not only by instructions; Washington also performs the function of gun pointers”, she told reporters on Tuesday.

The Russian Defense Ministry in turn stated that in Ukraine and in the world, there should be no doubt that the HIMARS strikes, including those on Elenovka, were planned by the Zelensky administration and approved by the US.

The Ministry’s spokesman Igor Konashenkov underscored that the Biden administration along with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “directly bear political, criminal and moral responsibility for the massacre in Elenovka and other war crimes in Ukraine.”

He added that Russia is calling on the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross to investigate developments in Elenovka.

The statement comes after the Telegraph reported that the Armed Forces of Ukraine consult Washington before opening fire from the US-­made HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems), amid Russia's ongoing special military operation in the country.

The newspaper quoted Major General Vadym Skibitsky, acting deputy head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, as claiming that the US along with the UK are helping Kiev hunt “Russian spies targeting Western-supplied weapons.”

Skibitsky also told the Telegraph that although US officials are not providing direct targeting information related to the Ukrainian army’s attacks on Donbass settlements, there was a level of consultation between the intelligence officials of both countries prior to the launching of HIMARS missiles.

“I can’t tell you whether [we are directly tasking] British and American satellites, but we have very good satellite imagery. We have very good cooperation with our partners in the UK in this field. We have very good communication with all the sister intelligence agencies”, the general asserted.

The Ukrainian military has repeatedly shelled the settlements in eastern Ukraine’s Donbass region using HIMARS systems. The Ukrainian forces also launched a strike on a prison in Elenovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic, where the captured members of the Azov regiment* were being kept. About 50 people were killed in the strike.

Russia launched its special military operation in Ukraine on February 24, following a request from Donbass republics to protect them from Kiev’s provocations.

*Azov regiment, a terrorist group banned in Russia