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| Members of the "Donbass" self-defence battalion attend a ceremony to swear the oath to be officially included into the reserve battalion of the National Guard of Ukraine near Kiev June 23, 2014. (Reuters/Valentyn Ogirenko) |
Moscow has warned Washington a potential policy shift from supplying
Kiev with “non-lethal aid” to “defensive lethal weapons”, mulled as US
Vice President visits Ukraine, would be a direct violation of all
international agreements.
A Russian Foreign
Ministry spokesperson said that reports of possible deliveries of
American “defensive weapons” to Ukraine would be viewed
by Russia as a “very serious signal.”
“We heard repeated confirmations from the [US]
administration, that it only supplies non-lethal aid to Ukraine.
If there is a change of this policy, then we are talking about a
serious destabilizing factor which could seriously affect the
balance of power in the region,” Russian Foreign Ministry
spokesman Aleksandr
Lukashevich cautioned.
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| Ukrainian army soldiers with an artillery field gun maneuver on the coastline near the eastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol on October 21, 2014. (AFP Photo/Alexander Khudoteply) |
His remarks follow US deputy National Security Advisor Tony
Blinken Wednesday’s statement at a hearing before the Senate
Committee for Foreign Affairs, in which he said that Biden may
offer the provision of “lethal defensive weapons” as he
visits Ukraine. Lethal assistance “remains on the table. It's
something that we’re looking at,” Blinken said.
“We paid attention not only to such statements, but also to
the trip of representatives of Ukrainian volunteer battalions to
Washington, who tried to muster support of the US
administration,” Lukashevich said.
The Ministry made it clear that such a move by Washington would
violate a number of agreements.
“This is a very serious signal for several reasons. First of
all, this is a direct violation of agreements, including the ones
achieved in partnership with the United States. I mean the Geneva
Declaration from 17 April,” said the Russian Foreign
Ministry spokesman.
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| US Vice President Joe Biden (AFP Photo/Jim Watson) |
Ukrainian President
Petro Poroshenko requested lethal aid from the US during a visit
to Washington in September.
The American Vice President who has arrived in Kiev late Thursday
has not yet made any official announcement, but Reuters’ sources
point to the possibility that US might increase a
“non-lethal” aid package to Kiev instead of opting to
supply arms.
Under the non-lethal aid package, the US could deliver to Ukraine
first Humvee vehicles and radars but as officials pointed out
such deliveries would unlikely alter the conflict. Previous
non-lethal aid to Ukraine announced in September included
military equipment such as counter-mortar detection units, body
armor, binoculars and other gear worth $53 million.
At the same time the US diplomatic branch announced that it will
continue to send advisers to Kiev and has allocated funds to
Ukraine to battle what both the US and Ukraine see as a threat
from Russia.
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| Medical volunteers unpack individual first aid kits similar to those used by NATO during a ceremony where they were donated by Kiev's Mayor Vitaly Klitschko in Kiev October 31, 2014. (Reuters/Valentyn Ogirenko) |
“The United States, as
you’re no doubt aware, is providing about $116 million in
security assistance to help Ukraine in this
effort,”State
Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said Thursday. “This assistance also includes
advising and training, and the United States will continue to
send advisory teams to Kiev to help improve Ukraine’s combat
medical care and to identify areas for additional security
assistance.”
Rathke also said that lethal assistance to Ukraine is not yet
“off the table.”
“Our position on lethal aid hasn’t changed. Nothing is off
the table, and we continue to believe there’s no military
solution. But we, in light of Russia’s actions, as the nominee
mentioned yesterday in his testimony, this is – as he indicated,
this is something that we should be looking at,” Rathke
said.
For now all will be decided Friday when Biden is expected to hold
talks with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and
President Petro Poroshenko. Following the talks, Biden and
Poroshenko will make a joint press statement.
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