cutting off the supply
Convoys carrying weapons into Ukraine are 'legitimate targets,' Russian official says
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov appeared on Russian state television Saturday to warn that his country's military forces could conduct strikes against convoys carrying foreign weapons into Ukraine, CNN reports.
"We warned the United States that pumping Ukraine with weapons from a number of countries orchestrated by them is not just a dangerous move, but these are actions that turn the corresponding convoys into legitimate targets," Ryabkov said.
According to The New York Times, NATO stopped flying weapons into Ukraine when the Russian invasion began. Instead, the weapons are flown into Poland or Romania and shipped by land to Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities.
Marc Finaud of the Geneva Center for Security Policy told Deutsche Welle last month that attacks on these convoys "could increase the tensions and the escalation."
Russian aircraft launched their first strikes against targets in western Ukraine on Friday, with explosions reported in the cities of Ivano-Frankivsk and Lutsk. This expansion of the air war suggests that ground routes from the Polish and Romanian borders may no longer be safe.