Russian military will consider NATO transport carrying weapons in Ukraine as targets to be destroyed, RIA Novosti news agency quoted Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu as saying at a conference call on May 4.
Shoigu reportedly stressed that the US and its NATO allies continue pumping weapons into Ukraine.
“Any transport of the North Atlantic Alliance that arrived in the territory of the country with weapons or materiel for the needs of the Ukrainian armed forces is considered by us as a legitimate target for destruction,” he said, according to TASS.
According to RIA Novosti, Shoigu added that Mariupol is under the control of the Russian army. “Peaceful life is being established in the territories of the LPR and DPR and Ukraine liberated from nationalists. Including Mariupol, the largest industrial and transport hub on the Sea of Azov. It is under the control of the Russian Army,” he said at the meeting.
The Russian Ministry of Defense also announced the destruction of six traction electrical substations in Ukraine.
It is noted that through these facilities the Ukrainian troops were supplied with weapons manufactured in the US and European countries.
The West can help stop “war crimes” allegedly carried out by Ukrainian forces if it uses its influence over Kiev and ceases the supply of weapons to the country, Russian President Vladimir Putin told his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday, according to the Kremlin, RT reported.
During their phone talks, which reportedly lasted for more than two hours, Putin congratulated Macron on his recent re-election and updated him on developments in Ukraine, including the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal plant in Mariupol, according to a readout of the call.
Putin claimed that the EU nations have ignored “the war crimes of the Ukrainian security forces, massive shelling of cities and towns of Donbass, resulting in civilian casualties.”