Ukraine’s pleas for lethal aid from US go unmet

WASHINGTON — The United States will provide $46 million in new security assistance to Ukraine’s military, but stop short of fulfilling an urgent request from Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko for lethal aid to help his country fight against Russian-backed separatists.

Poroshenko pleaded his case during remarks Thursday to a rare joint meeting of Congress. 

While he thanked the US for the non-lethal equipment it is providing his country’s beleaguered military, he said more was needed to stop the provocations near the Russian border.

“Blankets and night vision goggles are important, but one cannot win a war with a blanket,” he said during a 40-minute address that was repeatedly interrupted by applause from lawmakers.

Poroshenko was due to hold talks with President Barack Obama at the White House later Thursday, a meeting that sends a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the West’s support for Ukraine.

“The picture of President Poroshenko sitting in the Oval Office will be worth at least a thousand words — both in English and Russian,” White House spokesperson Josh Earnest said.

Ukraine and Kremlin-backed separatists have been locked in a months-long fight for control of eastern Ukrainian cities that sit on Russia’s border, aggression that followed Russia’s annexation of the strategically important Crimean Peninsula.

Ahead of Thursday’s White House meeting, US officials said Obama would announce a security assistance packages that will provide Ukrainian forces with counter-mortar radar to help detect incoming artillery fire. The US also will provide vehicles and patrol boats, body armour and heavy engineering equipment.

Despite some support for Poroshenko’s request within the Obama administration, officials said the president continues to oppose lethal assistance and does not envision directly arming the Ukrainian military as an effective way to end the conflict.

Lawmakers have also pressed Obama to ramp up military aid to Ukraine. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee was expected to vote Thursday on bipartisan legislation that would increase military and non-military assistance, as well as impose broad sanctions on Russia’s defence, energy and financial sectors.

“[Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin has upended the international order and a slap on the wrist will not deter future Russian provocations,” Senator Robert Menendez, a Democrat who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said. 

“In the face of Russian aggression, Ukraine needs our steadfast and determined support, not an ambiguous response. We are left with no choice but to apply tough sanctions against Russia, coupled with military assistance to Ukraine.”

The legislation would authorise $350 million in fiscal 2015 for military assistance, including anti-tank and anti-armour weapons, ammunition, counter-artillery radars and surveillance drones.

The US and Western allies have condemned Russia’s provocations in Ukraine, levying a series of economic sanctions and restricting Putin’s involvement in some international organisations. But the penalties have done little to shift Putin’s calculus. In recent weeks, the West has accused Russia of moving troops and equipment across its border with Ukraine, though the Kremlin denies such involvement.

Ukraine and the Russian-backed separatists inked a ceasefire agreement September 5.

The ceasefire appeared largely to be holding, with one killing reported in the last two days in Donetsk, one of the hardest-hit cities in the conflict, officials said Thursday.

The city council in Donetsk said no deaths were reported in fighting overnight on Wednesday, one of the quietest nights recently in eastern Ukraine.  

However, Col. Andriy Lysenko, spokesperson for Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, told journalists on Thursday that an  emergency worker was killed by fighting near Donetsk’s airport.

The city council of Donetsk said in a statement published online that the situation in much of the city was calm, although occasional explosions could still be heard in a neighbourhood in the north, near the government-held airport.

On Thursday, the Belarusian foreign ministry confirmed that peace talks involving Russia, Ukraine, and the rebels would continue Friday in Minsk under the auspices of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin told ITAR TASS news agency that Moscow expects Friday’s meeting of the Contact Group will “help further movement forward”.