The Dutch government will positively respond if Ukraine makes an arms request, Netherlands' foreign minister Wopke Hoekstra said Friday, stating that the situation has changed in the region during a foreign affairs committee meeting concerning the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
The Dutch government did not previously intend to supply arms to Ukraine as it did not want to stoke tensions in the region, but the situation has shifted to a degree that it is necessary to look at the developments from a different perspective, he said.
Meanwhile, a majority of the Dutch parliament declared that it is open to defensive military support to Ukraine.
Russia is accused of having amassed more than 100,000 troops near Ukraine's border, a move that has prompted concerns by the West that Moscow could be planning another military offensive against its ex-Soviet neighbor.
The Kremlin has denied Western accusations of a looming invasion, saying its forces are there for exercises.
In February 2014, Russian forces entered the Crimean Peninsula, with President Vladimir Putin formally dividing the region into two separate federal subjects of the Russian Federation the following month.
Turkey, the U.S. and the U.N. General Assembly view the annexation as illegal.
Fighting between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine's Donbas region has seen more than 13,000 people killed since 2014, according to the U.N.
The region is one of several sources of friction between Russia and Ukraine.
