The Trump administration has approved a plan to provide lethal weapons to Ukraine, a long-awaited
move that deepens America's involvement in the military conflict and may further strain
relations with Russia.
Moscow responded angrily on Saturday.
The new arms include American-made Javelin anti-tank missiles, U.S. officials said late
Friday.
Ukraine has long sought to boost its defenses against Russian-backed separatists armed with
tanks that have rolled through eastern Ukraine during violence that has killed more than
10,000 since 2014.
Previously, the U.S. has provided Ukraine with support equipment and training, and has
let private companies sell some small arms like rifles.
The officials describing the plan weren't authorized to discuss it publicly and demanded
anonymity.
The move is likely to become another sore point between Washington and Moscow, as President
Donald Trump contends with ongoing questions about whether he's too hesitant to confront
the Kremlin.
Ukraine accuses Russia of sending the tanks, and the U.S. says Moscow is arming, training
and fighting alongside the separatists
In this video, Defense Update analyses the impact of U.S PROVIDING JAVELIN ANTI-TANK
MISSILES TO UKRAINE AGAINST RUSSIA.
The intensified support for Ukraine's military also comes amid early discussions about sending
U.N. peacekeepers to eastern Ukraine, to improve security conditions not only for Ukrainians
but for monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe who are
on the ground.
The U.S. and other nations were cautiously optimistic when Russian President Vladimir
Putin proposed to send in peacekeepers.
But there are major disagreements about how and where the peacekeepers would operate,
especially about whether they'd be deployed only on the "line of conflict" between
separatists and the government.
The U.S. and Ukraine want peacekeepers deployed throughout the separatist-controlled regions
stretching to the Ukraine-Russia border.
By approving a plan to provide lethal weapons to Ukraine, the Trump administration could
see it as providing leverage in these negotiations.
Trump had been considering the plan for some time after the State Department and the Pentagon
signed off earlier this year.
President Barack Obama also considered sending lethal weapons to Ukraine, but left office
without doing so.
The FGM-148 Javelin is an American man-portable fire-and-forget anti-tank missile fielded
to replace the M47 Dragon anti-tank missile in US service.It uses an automatic infrared
guidance that allows the user to seek cover immediately after launch, as opposed to wired
guided systems, like the Dragon, where the user has to actively guide the weapon throughout
the engagement.
It is manufactured by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin.
The Javelin's High-Explosive Anti-Tank (HEAT) warhead is capable of defeating modern tanks
by attacking them from above where armor is generally thinner, and is also useful against
fortifications in a direct attack flight.
The tandem warhead is fitted with two shaped charges: a precursor warhead to detonate any
explosive reactive armor and a primary warhead to penetrate base armor.
It has a range of 4.75 km or around 3 miles.
The State Department, responsible for overseeing foreign military sales, would not confirm
that anti-tank missiles or other lethal weapons would be sent.
But in a statement late Friday, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the U.S. had
decided to provide "enhanced defensive capabilities" to help Ukraine build its military long-term,
defend its sovereignty and "deter further aggression."
"U.S. assistance is entirely defensive in nature, and as we have always said, Ukraine
is a sovereign country and has a right to defend itself," Nauert said.
The White House's National Security Council declined to comment.
In thanking the U.S. for its support, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko addressed the concerns
over how the weapons would be used.
"American weapons in the hands of Ukrainian soldiers are not for an offensive, but for
a decisive rebuff of the aggressor, the protection of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians, as well
as for effective self-defense," he wrote on Facebook.
"It is also a trans-Atlantic vaccination against the Russian virus of aggression."
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Rybakov said the U.S. decision will only make the
conflict more deadly and suggested that Russia could be forced to respond.
Rybakov said in a statement "U.S is not a mediator.
It's an accomplice in fueling the war,"
Although the portable Javelin anti-tank missiles can kill, proponents for granting them to
Ukraine have long argued they are considered "defensive" because the Ukrainians would
use them to defend their territory and deter the Russians, not to attack a foreign country
or seize new territory.
Under law, the State Department must tell Congress of planned foreign military sales,
triggering a review period in which lawmakers can act to stop the sale.
It was unclear whether the administration had formally notified Congress, but lawmakers
aren't likely to try to block it given that Democrats and Republicans alike have long
called on the government to take the step.
The move comes as the United States and European nations struggle to break a long logjam in
the Ukraine-Russia conflict that erupted three years ago when fighting broke out between
Russian-backed separatists and government troops in the east.
France, Russia and Germany brokered a peace arrangement in 2015 that has lowered violence
but not stopped it.
In recent days, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has warned that violence is up about 60% this
year.
In Europe earlier this month, Tillerson called Russia's involvement the biggest tension
point between the former Cold War rivals.
"It stands as the single most difficult obstacle to us, denormalizing the relationship
with Russia, which we badly would like to do," Tillerson said.
The United States, under Obama, also imposed sanctions on Russia for its invasion and annexation
of Crimea.
The Trump administration has insisted those sanctions will stay in place until Moscow
gives up the Crimean Peninsula.
Sending lethal weapons to Ukraine creates the troubling possibility that American arms
could kill Russian soldiers, a situation that could thrust the two nuclear-armed nations
closer to direct confrontation.
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