Russia slams S Korean suggestion to arm Kyiv as ‘anti-Russia’ move

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has reacted strongly to South Korea’s suggestion that it may start arming Ukraine’s government, slamming the idea as “an openly hostile anti-Russian move.”

“Russia is conducting defensive military operations against the collective West, which has chosen the puppet regime in Kyiv as an instrument of its hybrid proxy war against us. In this situation, we will consider any supplies of weapons to Ukraine, wherever they might come from, as an openly hostile anti-Russian move,” Zakharova insisted on Thursday following earlier harsh reactions expressed by other senior Russian officials.

“Such steps will negatively impact bilateral relations with those states that take them and will be taken into account when elaborating Russia’s positions on issues concerning core security interests of the relevant countries,” she further emphasized, noting: “As for South Korea, it might be about the approaches to the settlement of the situation on the Korean Peninsula.”

Zakharova then went on to clarify that Russian forces deliver high-precision strikes solely at military targets in Ukraine, not at civil infrastructure facilities.

Her remarks came a day after South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol raised the possibility of sending military aid to the Western-backed government in Kyiv in the event of what he speculated to as “a large-scale civilian attack by Russia.”

“If there is a situation the international community cannot condone, such as any large-scale attack on civilians, massacre or serious violation of the laws of war, it might be difficult for us to insist only on humanitarian or financial support,” Yoon inferred ahead of his upcoming visit to Washington — Seoul’s key ally and sponsor.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also reacted promptly to Yoon’s highly hostile and hypothetical statement on Wednesday saying, “Unfortunately Seoul has taken a rather unfriendly stance. The start of arms supplies will indirectly mean a certain stage of involvement in this conflict.”

Yoon’s remarks further drew a stern warning from Deputy Chairman of the Russian National Security Council Dmitry Medvedev, who threatened that Moscow would in turn supply advanced weaponry to Seoul’s arch-foe North Korea if it went ahead with supplying arms to Kyiv.

“I wonder what the residents of this nation would say when they see the newest example of Russian weapons in possession of their closest neighbors, our partners from the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea]?” Medvedev wrote on social media on Wednesday.

South Korea, which is a major producer of artillery ammunition, has supplied Ukraine with non-lethal and humanitarian assistance but has so far ruled out military aid to Kyiv, citing its policy against supplying weapons to war zones.

South Korea had initially ruled out the possibility of supplying Kyiv with lethal weapons following the start of Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine in an effort to avoid antagonizing Moscow due to its companies operating there as well as its influence over Pyongyang.

Last week, South Korean media reported that Seoul had considered “loaning” the US nearly 500,000 rounds of 155mm artillery guns amid reports that Kyiv is in desperate need of such munitions for its almost entirely Western-sponsored war against Russia.