MOSCOW, November 24. /TASS/: The Kremlin has no information on whether US Javelin anti-tank missile systems were used in the Donbass region, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.
"No, we do not have any information on where and how they were used. But it is an obvious fact that they are present there," the Russian presidential spokesman said, commenting on a statement by Ukraine’s Military Intelligence Chief Kirill Budanov that the Ukrainian military had used the US Javelin anti-tank missile systems in Donbass.
The Kremlin spokesman declined to directly answer a question about whether Moscow would consider the use of Javelin anti-tank missile systems as an instance of crossing "the red lines" that Russian President Vladimir Putin had spoken about. "Listen, the Javelin is used against something, right? The situation remains very tense," Peskov noted.
The US-based Military Times outlet reported on November 14, citing Chief of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Main Intelligence Department Kirill Budanov that the Ukrainian military had used Javelin anti-tank missile systems supplied by the United States against the militia fighters of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics.
The general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces confirmed on October 26 that the military had employed Turkish-made Bayraktar combat drones in the Donbass area for the first time.
In 2019, Kiev purchased and tested the Bayraktar drones. In late June 2020, the United States delivered Javelin anti-tank missile systems to Ukraine under a contract signed in December 2019, as well as other weapons and equipment worth $60 million.
