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Ukraine’s Foreign Minister tells Southeast Asia to reconsider buying Russian arms on ‘moral grounds’ and ‘poor quality’
- Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Moscow’s poor performance on the battlefield served as a cautionary tale about the quality of its arms
- Kuleba’s comments come two days after President Vladimir Putin said at an arms show that Russian weaponry was years ahead of its competition
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Ukraine has urged Southeast Asian countries to reconsider their previously sizeable arms procurements from Russia, saying Moscow’s poor performance on the battlefield served as a cautionary tale about the quality of its arms.
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Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba’s comments came as he was responding to questions from This Week in Asia during a group interview with Asian journalists on Wednesday. Defence analysts said that countries were already diversifying their weapons imports in the aftermath of the Ukraine-Russia conflict.
Russia is the world’s second largest arms exporter after the US, but in Southeast Asia, Moscow is tops. In his remarks, Kuleba said the onus was on regional governments to avoid these imports on moral and practical grounds.
His comments come two days after President Vladimir Putin said at an arms show outside Moscow that Russian weaponry was years ahead of its competition.
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