Trump to send weapons to Ukrainian military

 The Trump administration will provide the Ukrainian military with “enhanced defensive capabilities” at a time of intensifying fighting with Russian-backed forces in the country’s eastern provinces, reversing an Obama-era policy and threatening to escalate the four-year-old conflict.

Heather Nauert, the state department spokesperson, said the decision was “part of our effort to help Ukraine build its long-term defence capacity, to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity, and to deter further aggression”.

Ms Nauert did not say what kind of weapons would be sent to Kiev. But ABC News reported they would include Javelin anti-tank missiles long coveted by the Ukrainian military to fight Russian-backed separatist ground forces in the eastern Donbass region. 

Although the move is likely to further damage already frayed relations between Washington and Moscow, Ms Nauert insisted the US was committed to ceasefire agreements reached between Russia and Ukraine in 2014 and 2105, saying the US assistance was “entirely defensive in nature” and was not intended to undermine the so-called Minsk peace accords.

Grigory Karasin, deputy foreign minister, told Russia’s state news agency that President Donald Trump’s decision “raises the danger of derailing the process of peaceful settlement in Ukraine”. Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned US assistance would escalate the conflict.

Kiev’s leadership and military have pleaded for Javelins and other lethal weaponry since Russia fomented a proxy war in far eastern regions following its 2014 occupation of Crimea, requests that have been renewed as fighting in the Donbass have intensified in recent weeks. 

The Obama administration long resisted Kiev’s requests, fearing it would escalate the conflict and lead to Ukrainian troops using US weaponry against Russian combat forces, significantly internationalising the war.

Alexander Hug, an Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe official monitoring the conflict, said on Friday ceasefire violations during the week surged by 40 per cent to 16,000. He said 85 civilians had died so far this year in the conflict which has claimed more than 10,000 combatants and civilians since erupting in 2014.

Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who has long called for the US to provide Ukraine with more lethal weapons, said Mr Trump’s decision “sends a strong signal that the United States will stand by its allies and partners as they fight to defend their sovereignty and territorial integrity”. 

“This decision is years overdue,” Mr McCain added. “But as Vladimir Putin continues to sow instability in Ukraine and Russian-led forces escalate their deadly attacks, it could not come at a more important time.”

In a statement Kiev said that Petro Poroshenko, Ukraine’s president, had spoken by telephone late on Friday with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to discuss the “escalation of the situation in the Donbass due to an increase in the number of bombardments by Russian militants.”

Visiting the frontline town of Avdiivka earlier this year, Kurt Volker, appointed by Mr Trump as a special envoy for the conflict, described the situation as a “hot war”.

Mr Volker has held talks this year with Ukrainian and European officials as well as Vladislav Surkov, a senior aide to Russia’s president, with the aim forging a lasting ceasefire and settlement. He has called upon Russia to withdraw its forces and military support for Donetsk and Lugansk-based separatists in the Donbas region, and to agree to an international peacekeeping mission.

“Peace in eastern Ukraine can come if Russia pulls out it’s forces and stops support for it’s proxies. International community can help, but peace depends on Russia,” Mr Volker said in a tweet summing up his December 19 discussions at the Atlantic Council.

Russia’s leadership continues to deny being party to the conflict and has refused to sanction a peacekeeping mission which would have full access throughout the conflict zone, insisting Kiev and its western backers needed to engage directly with the separatist leadership.