Pakistan denies supplying ammunition to Ukraine

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Foreign Office has questioned the accuracy of reports claiming that the country was providing ammunition to Ukraine in its war with Russia, the media reported.

"The reporting about supply of defence items by Pakistan to Ukraine is not accurate," Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said at the weekly media briefing.

Reports claiming that Pakistan was providing ammunition to Ukraine have regularly surfaced in media since middle of the last year, but it is rare for Islamabad to have officially denied such involvement in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Dawn reported.

France 24 had a couple of days back reported that "run-down ammunition supplies are one of Kiev's most pressing concerns, with Ukraine and its partners resorting to far-flung countries like South Korea and Pakistan as sources of artillery munitions". Pakistan, the spokesperson said, maintains a policy of non-interference in military conflicts.

Many of those reports had alleged that the ammunition was sent to Ukraine via some other European country, Dawn reported. "Pakistan only exports defence stores to other states based on strong end-use and no re-transfer assurances. And this is the case of Pakistan's position in the Ukraine-Russia conflict," she maintained.

Many of the reports about Pakistani ammunition supplies have sought to target the improved ties between Islamabad and Moscow.