U.S. takes more steps to challenge Russian aggression in Ukraine

The U.S. is preparing the legislative groundwork to act quickly should a decision be reached to provide Ukraine with lethal weapons, said on Sept. 22 Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Valeriy Chaly, as reported by the Ukrinform news agency.  “The legislative mechanisms for bi-party support exist, the costs for such armaments exist and this can be done,” Chaly said. Ukraine has begun to more quickly receive defensive equipment from the U.S., including drones, communications equipment and radar systems, he said.

The U.S. Senate approved its 2017 military budget that allocates USD 602 mln to ensure Europe’s security against the threat of expanded Russian military aggression, an increase of four times last year’s amount, the BBC news agency reported. For the first time in a long time, the U.S. Defense Department made preventing Russian aggression one of the key components of its defense strategy, said Defense Secretary Ashton Carter.

Zenon Zawada: The U.S. government is doing everything possible, short of actually supplying lethal defensive weapons, to provide Ukraine with the military defense it needs, particularly in the event that Russian military aggression intensifies. Such U.S. support has been effective throughout the last two years in restraining Russia and preventing its campaign of aggression from accelerating further. We are confident that such support is currently forcing Kremlin military heads to carefully weigh any further aggression in Ukraine.