Kremlin says any new 'colonial' U.S. aid to Ukraine won't change frontline situation

By Reuters - April 18, 2024 GMT

MOSCOW, April 18 (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Thursday that any new U.S. military aid for Ukraine would not change the situation at the front where Kyiv's forces were in a poor position and cast such aid as part of a "colonial" policy which enriched the United States.

Mike Johnson, the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, has said he will hold a long-awaited vote on a new aid package as early as Saturday. The proposed package includes $60.84 billion to address the conflict in Ukraine, of which $23.2 billion would be used to replenish U.S. weapons, stocks and facilities. While the European Union has pledged more overall aid, the United States has given by far the biggest military contribution to help Ukraine fight Russia."Ukraine has to not only fight to provide profit for the Americans but it also has to fight to the last Ukrainian and is loaded up with debt," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

"The favourite colonial policy of the United States of America."Peskov noted that "a very significant" part of the proposed aid would remain in the U.S. military-industrial complex."All experts and semi-experts can now see with the naked eye the situation on the front, which is far from favourable for the Ukrainian side, so this cannot change anything," Peskov said of the aid package. Russia controls about 18% of Ukraine and Western leaders and spy chiefs say the war is at a crossroads which could lead to victory for Russia and humiliation for the West unless Ukraine urgently gets more support.

Russia's war against Ukraine has triggered the worst crisis in relations between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, according to Russian and U.S. diplomats. Ukraine, supported by the West, says it is defending itself against a Russian imperial-style land grab. Russia says the United States tried to shunt Ukraine into the West's orbit and then use it to threaten Russia.

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Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Guy Faulconbridge Editing by Andrew Osborn.