CGTN
The former Russian President and current Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev warned NATO on Tuesday against providing Ukraine with Patriot missile defense systems, denouncing the alliance as a "criminal entity" for delivering arms to what he called "extremist regimes."
"If, as (NATO Secretary-General Jens) Stoltenberg hinted, NATO were to supply the Ukrainian fanatics with Patriot systems along with NATO personnel, they would immediately become a legitimate target of our armed forces," Medvedev wrote on Telegram.
"The civilized world does not need this organization. It must repent to humanity and be dissolved as a criminal entity," he wrote in an earlier post.
Ukraine has asked its Western partners for air defenses, including U.S.-made Patriot systems, to protect it from Russian attacks on its energy infrastructure.
"We need air defense, IRIS, Hawks, Patriots, and we need transformers (for our energy needs)," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told reporters on the sidelines of the NATO meeting, enumerating various Western air defense systems.
"In a nutshell: Patriots and transformers are what Ukraine needs the most."
NATO ministers have condemned what they call Russia's "persistent and unconscionable attacks on Ukrainian civilian and energy infrastructure," and pledged to step up their support for Kyiv.
Russia has repeatedly warned the West not to pump Ukraine with various weapons, suggesting such an act could eventually lead to a direct conflict between the U.S.-led NATO alliance and Russia.
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