Updated on 08:58 p.m. Moscow Time
KIEV, September 8 (RIA Novosti) — Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has agreed on direct deliveries of modern weaponry from several NATO countries, a statement on his website said Monday.
“Agreements with a number of NATO countries have been reached ensuring direct supplies of modern weaponry, which will help us to defend ourselves and achieve a victory,” the statement said.
“We are counting on ourselves, but we desperately need financial and technical-military aid. And we will get it,” the document said.
On September 7, Yuri Lutsenko, senior aide to the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, claimed that the United States, France, Italy, Poland and Norway had agreed to supply modern armaments to Ukraine at the September 4-5 NATO summit in Wales. Reuters disproved the information by citing an anonymous high-profile US official. Italy, Norway and Poland have also denied the existence of any arrangements to supply weapons to Ukraine. France declined to comment on the issue, Reuters reported.
Ukraine has been embroiled in violent internal conflict since mid-April, when Kiev began a military operation against independence supporters in the southeastern regions of the country.
The statement comes amid a ceasefire agreement reached on September 5 at a meeting of the Contact Group on Ukraine in Minsk.
