U.S. weapons for Ukraine anger Russia
Kiev ‘grateful’ as Moscow says move ‘crossed a line’
— Ukraine’s president on Saturday thanked the U.S. for its decision to provide his nation with lethal weapons, while Russian diplomats and lawmakers expressed dismay, warning that it will only fuel hostilities in eastern Ukraine.
The angry response from Moscow came a day after President Donald Trump’s administration approved a plan to provide weapons to Ukraine, including Javelin anti-tank missiles. Ukraine has long sought the weapons for its fight against Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine that has killed more than 10,000 people since April 2014, and it strongly welcomed the U.S. move.
“I am grateful for the leadership of President Donald Trump, clear position of all our American friends, and for strong bipartisan support of Ukraine,” Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Facebook in English. “American weapons in the hands of Ukrainian soldiers are not for offensive [purposes], but for stronger rebuff of the aggressor, protection of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians, as well as for effective self-defense. It is also a trans-Atlantic vaccination against the Russian virus of aggression.”
In Moscow, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the U.S. administration’s move has “crossed a line.”
“Washington has sought to cast itself as a ‘mediator,’” he said in a statement. “It’s not a mediator. It’s an accomplice in fueling a war.”
Moscow’s admonition came shortly after the State Department announced Friday evening that it will provide heavy armaments to Ukraine for the first time, a step up from the support equipment and training it has offered so far. A statement by spokesman Heather Nauert said the weapons were defensive in nature, “as part of our effort to help Ukraine build its long-term defense capacity, to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity, and to deter further aggression.”
On Wednesday, the government said it had approved an export license allowing the sale of light weapons and small arms to Ukraine from commercial U.S. manufacturers. Without mentioning the U.S. decision, France and Germany on Saturday urged combatants to fully implement a much-violated ceasefire agreement.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron issued a joint statement urging combatants to observe a 2015 peace deal brokered by France and Germany. Its provisions include the withdrawal of heavy weapons such as tanks and rocket launchers from the front-line area and an exchange of prisoners.
The two leaders also urged the return of Russian military officers to a joint coordination center that plays a role in monitoring the cease-fire.
Merkel and Macron said in their statement that “there is no alternative to an exclusively peaceful solution to the conflict.”
The intensified American support for Ukraine’s military also comes during 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.
TRADING ACCUSATIONS
The U.S. and its allies say Russia has sent troops and weapons to help the rebels in eastern Ukraine. Moscow has denied the accusations but acknowledged that Russian citizens joined the separatist forces as volunteers.
Ryabkov warned that the U.S. move could warrant a Russian response.
“The American weapons can lead to more victims in the neighboring country, and we couldn’t stay indifferent to that,” he said.
Moscow has long maintained that U.S. authorities organized and oversaw the Maidan protests in Kiev that led former President Viktor Yanukovych to flee to Russia in early 2014. Russian state television programs constantly portray Ukraine as a failed state with neo-fascist leaders bent on oppressing ethnic Russians in the eastern Donbas region.
“The United States is clearly prompting them to a new bloodshed now,” Ryabkov said in comments posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry website. “[Kiev’s] revenge-seekers have already been shelling Donbas every day and are unwilling to hold peace talks, while dreaming about doing away with the disobedient population. And the U.S. has decided to give them the weapons for it.” Valentina Matviyenko, the speaker of the upper house of Russian parliament, said in remarks carried by the Tass news agency that the U.S. move was a “big mistake” that would “pull them into Ukraine’s internal conflict.”
“With lethal weapons supplies, the U.S. gives a clear signal to Kiev that it will support a military option,” Alexei Pushkov, the head of the upper house’s information committee, said on Twitter.
Tensions in the east have increased in recent weeks, with observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe expressing concern about a recent spike in fighting.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson discussed the recent uptick in violence during a phone call Friday with Poroshenko, according to an account provided by the Ukrainian government. The State Department confirmed the call had taken place but provided no details.
The Ukrainians said Poroshenko thanked Tillerson for continuing sanctions against Russia and for the “consistent support of Washington regarding the increase of Ukraine’s defense capacity.” It also said Tillerson reassured him that U.S. support for Ukraine would continue.
Last week, Russia withdrew its military observers from the joint group monitoring the truce, citing “restrictions and provocations” by Ukrainian authorities that made it hard for Russian officers to perform their duties.
Ukraine and the rebels declared an intention Wednesday to speed up efforts to exchange prisoners. They also agreed to maintain a cease-fire for the Christmas and New Year’s season starting Saturday, but immediately blamed each other for violating the deal.