You're reading: Klimkin: Ukraine to use US weapons to respond to provocations, not to escalate conflict

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has said the weapons the US will provide to Ukraine will be used to respond to provocations by illegal armed groups, but not to escalate the conflict in the east of Ukraine.

“These weapons can and will be used in the event of provocations by Russia and the terrorists it supports, and as you understand, it will not be used in attack operations, so it cannot be used as an argument that will help to escalate the conflict,” Klimkin said at a joint press conference with German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel in Kyiv on Jan.3.

The Ukrainian foreign minister noted that the decision of US President Donald Trump to provide Ukraine with lethal defensive weapons is both of symbolic and practical nature.

“What Russia is doing now is absolutely conscious tactics of controlled escalation, and we do not rule out further military escalation,” Klimkin noted.