Ukraine Crisis: Poland Denies Supplying Weapons To Kiev
Poland has denied it has started supplying Ukraine with armory to aid with its fight against Russia. Poland is a member of NATO since March 1999.
On Sunday, Valery Heletey, Ukraine's defense minister, said a number of NATO member-countries are going to deliver weapons to help the country fight off Russian President Vladimir Putin's alleged expansion plans. The weapons, he said, will surely help them fight pro-Russian separatists.
But Tomasz Siemoniak, Polish defence minister, denied Poland is part of that NATO list. He said the country has yet to sell any arms to Ukraine.
"Ukraine's defence minister spoke clearly of one country that has started supplying weapons to Ukraine. That country is not Poland," Xinhua News quoted Siemoniak.
According to RT News, Yury Lutsenko, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's aide, reportedly wrote on his Facebook page that apart from Poland, the US, France and Italy agreed to send modern weapons to Ukraine.
Although Poland had earlier signified willingness to sell arms to Ukraine, Siemoniak said this must first be discussed.
Heletey did not provide details as to which among the NATO members committed to send arms. He said the agreement was agreed behind closed doors in bilateral meetings with NATO defense ministers during a NATO summit in Wales on Sept 4-5.
The agreement was discussed and agreed in closed talks and without media, he said. "I have no right to disclose any specific country we reached that agreement with. But the fact is that those weapons are already on the way to us - that's absolutely true, I can officially tell you," he said.
Ukraine is currently in a ceasefire agreement with Russia since Sept 5. However, this had hardly stopped the sporadic violations in key areas such as Donetsk.
NATO, earlier this month, said it will not send assistance to Ukraine and that the country would need to fight off on its own Russia's aggression and Mr Putin's forces because it is a non-member state. It said, however, that member states may send assistance to Kiev on their own calling.
Read: Ukraine Would Have to Fight Alone - NATO; Port City Near Russia Fears it is Next Target