U.S. won’t supply arms to Ukraine, U.S. ambassador says

The U.S. won’t be supplying Ukraine with lethal, defensive weapons because Ukraine has its own military-industrial complex, U.S. ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt said in an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. “Ukraine has a powerful defense industry and has the ability to produce its own ammunition,” he said on Aug. 18, in response to whether Javelin anti-tank rockets would be provided. “I hope that thanks to cooperation between our industrial branches in the nearest months and years, the capacity of Ukraine’s defense industry will strengthen.” 

Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Valeriy Chaly revealed on Aug. 23 on Ukrainian television that Ukraine will receive “in the nearest days” another delivery of non-combat military supplies from the U.S. Pyatt announced on Aug. 18 the delivery of USD 600 million worth of non-combat supplies to Ukraine, including night-vision goggles.

The Russian Federation will conduct a new round of large-scale military exercises near the Ukrainian border in the nearest future, said on Aug. 22 Oleksandr Turchynov, the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, as reported by the pravda.com.ua news site. They agreed on the need to activate military-technical cooperation between Ukraine and EU nations.

Zenon Zawada: Though the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine has consistently maintained its position on refraining from providing weapons to Ukraine since the start of the conflict two years ago, Pyatt’s Aug. 18 statement marks perhaps the first time he cited Ukraine’s defense industry as the reason for restraining. Indeed, Ukraine’s is among top ten world’s exporters of arms, which begs the question of why its leaders are asking for weapons from the U.S. Moreover, the modernization of Ukrainian armaments could have already begun through cooperation with Western producers, as Pyatt pointed out.

We are confident that Ukraine won’t receive any lethal, defensive weapons if Donald Trump is elected president. It’s possible that Hillary Clinton will consider such a move, as she has demonstrated to be aggressive on the foreign policy front, especially with her orchestrated attacks on Libya and repeated calls for Bashar al-Assad’s overthrow. Introducing U.S. weapons to this conflict, however, could infuriate the Russian leadership and exacerbate their military aggression.