The country's Defense Minister Ludivine Dedonder noted that she expects Kiev to respond to a request on how Belgian assault rifles fell into the hands of militants attacking the Belgorod region.
BRUSSELS, June 9./TASS/. Belgium will continue to supply weapons to Kiev in anticipation of a response to the request, as the Belgian assault rifles fell into the hands of the militants who attacked the Belgorod region. This was stated by Belgian Defense Minister Ludivine Dedonder on Friday in an interview with Le Soir newspaper.
"Belgium will not suspend military assistance to Ukraine while waiting for a response from the Ukrainian side," she said.
According to her, Belgium is waiting until June 15 for a response from Ukraine on the use of its weapons for this attack. "We sent a request to Ukraine on Monday (June 5 - approx. TASS). We will have a contact group on Ukraine on June 15, if there is no response by then, I will talk with the Minister [of Defense of Ukraine Alexey] Reznikov," Dedonder said. The Minister stressed that "a document is attached to each batch of weapons supplied, which clarifies that they should be used only for the defense of Ukrainian territory, not for attacks on other states, it also states the need to respect human rights and international norms."
"When we look at the photos, we come to the conclusion that we are talking about [Belgian-made assault rifles] FN Scar. But have they been received from the aid shipments that Belgium sent to Ukraine? Or from batches purchased by other countries from the FN group? Or were they picked up as trophies, as happens in any conflict zone? I hope that this will be clarified sometime," the minister said.
Dedonder noted that Belgium has already supplied Ukraine with weapons worth €274 million.
"We have sent different types of weapons: small automatic weapons, cartridges, machine guns, anti-tank weapons, heavy mortars, medical equipment, protective equipment. We supply depending on the needs of Ukraine, which develop over time. Recently, we have been supplying anti-tank missiles, ammunition for air defense and artillery," she said.
According to her, Belgium has already trained more than 700 military APU, including snipers and sappers, pilot training "will begin soon."
She stressed that the training of pilots will "definitely not take place on the territory of Belgium."
"To date, Belgium has trained over 700 Ukrainian military personnel, and we continue intensive training, including snipers, sappers and specialists in general combat training. Most of them study in Germany and Poland. To this we can add bilateral training programs that existed before, both general army and special forces programs," she said.
