While Washington was planning to procure Soviet equipment from Ecuador and then send it to Ukraine, Ecuador finally changed its mind, Vladimir Sprinchan, Russian ambassador to Ecuador, told Sputnik after a meeting with Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa.
"The Ecuadorian side confirmed that the country, given its neutral status and its membership in the UN, cannot allow itself to be drawn into a conflict alongside anyone. Ecuador's position is not to send weapons and ammunition to hot zones," Vladimir Sprinchan noted.
In early January, Ecuador accepted Washington's offer to exchange old Soviet equipment for new-generation American armaments, with an estimated value of about $199 milllion. Moscow had expressed its disapproval.
This "reckless" decision was taken "under serious pressure from external interested parties," the spokeswoman for Russian diplomacy, Maria Zakharova, said.