Kremlin: More Western arms for Ukraine will only lead to escalation

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Monday that further supplies of Western weaponry to Ukraine would only lead to further escalation of the conflict there.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also said members of the Western NATO alliance were becoming more involved in the conflict, but that their provision of arms to Ukraine would not change the course of events.

"Ukraine demands more and more weapons," Peskov said in a call with reporters, when asked to comment on a public request by Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Andriy Melnyk for Germany to send Kyiv a submarine.

"The West is encouraging these demands, and professes its readiness to provide such weapons," he said.

"It's a dead-end situation: it leads to significant escalation, it leads to NATO countries more and more becoming directly involved in the conflict - but it doesn't have the potential to change the course of events and will not do so," he said.

Last week, Germany and the United States announced they would supply main battle tanks to Ukraine, for the first time pledging unambiguously offensive weapons to help it resist Russian forces.

(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Kevin Liffey)