Obama resists arming Ukraine

WASHINGTON — As U.S. intelligence agencies have detected new Russian tanks and artillery crossing into Ukraine in recent days, President Barack Obama has come under increasing pressure from both parties and more officials inside his own government to send arms to the country. But he remains unconvinced that they would help.

Democrats joined Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday in unanimously pressing the administration to send weapons to Kiev. Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, publicly urged Obama to consider such a move last week, joining Defense Secretary Ash Carter and James Clapper, the director of national intelligence.

But the president has signaled privately that despite the pressure, he remains reluctant to send arms. In part, he has told aides and visitors that arming the Ukrainians would encourage the notion that they could defeat the far more powerful Russians, and so it would potentially draw a more forceful response from Moscow.

He also wants to give a shaky cease-fire a chance to take hold, despite a reported 1,000 violations so far, and seems determined to stay aligned with European allies that oppose arms for Ukraine.

“If you’re playing on the military terrain in Ukraine, you’re playing to Russia’s strength, because Russia is right next door,” Antony Blinken, the deputy secretary of state, told an audience in Berlin last week.