{"id":175735,"date":"2018-09-04T05:43:41","date_gmt":"2018-09-04T05:43:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=175735"},"modified":"2022-03-01T16:54:26","modified_gmt":"2022-03-01T16:54:26","slug":"ambassador-kurt-volker-us-to-drastically-expand-military-assistance-to-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=175735","title":{"rendered":"Ambassador Kurt Volker: US to Drastically Expand Military Assistance to Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Peter Korzun — Strategic Review Sept 3, 2018<\/h1>\n
\"Kurt<\/a>

Ambassador Kurt Volker. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

Washington is upping the ante in Ukraine.\u00a0Kurt Volker<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, US\u00a0Special Representative\u00a0for\u00a0Ukraine Negotiations, said in an\u00a0interview<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>with the\u00a0Guardian<\/em>\u00a0published on September 1 that \u201cWashington is ready to expand arms supplies to\u00a0Ukraine<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0in order to build up the country\u2019s naval and air defense forces in the face of continuing Russian support for\u00a0eastern separatists<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.\u201d<\/em> According to him, the Trump administration was \u201cabsolutely\u201d prepared to go further in supplying lethal weaponry to Ukrainian forces than the\u00a0anti-tank missiles it delivered in April<\/a><\/strong><\/span>. \u201cThey need lethal assistance,\u201d\u00a0he emphasized. Mr. Volker explained that \u201c[t]hey need to rebuild a navy and they have very limited air capability as well. I think we\u2019ll have to look at air defense.\u201d<\/em> The diplomat\u00a0believes<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0Ukraine needs unmanned aerial vehicles, counter-battery radar systems, and anti-sniper systems. The issue of lethal arms purchases has been discussed at the highest level.<\/span><\/p>\n

The National Defense Authorization Act\u00a0for Fiscal Year\u00a02019\u00a0allocated $250m in military assistance to Ukraine, including lethal arms. The US has delivered Javelin anti-tank missile systems to Kiev but this time the ambassador talked about an incomparably larger deal. Former President Barack Obama had been unconvinced that granting Ukraine lethal defensive weapons would be the right decision, in view of the widespread corruption there.\u00a0This policy has changed under President Trump, who \u2014 among other things \u2014\u00a0approved<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0deliveries of anti-tank missiles to Kiev last December.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ukraine has officially requested US air-defense systems. According to Valeriy Chaly, Ukraine\u2019s ambassador to the United States, the Ukrainian military wants to purchase at least three air-defense systems. The cost of the deal is expected to exceed $2 billion, or about $750 million apiece. The system in question was not specified, but it\u2019s generally believed to be the Patriot.<\/span><\/p>\n

Volker\u2019s statement was made at a time of rising tensions in the Sea of Azov, which is legally\u00a0shared by Ukraine and Russia. It is connected to the Black Sea through the Kerch Strait. The rhetoric has heated up and ships have been placed under arrest as this territorial dispute turns the area into a\u00a0flashpoint<\/a><\/strong><\/span>. Russia\u00a0has slammed<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0the US for backing Ukraine\u2019s violations of international law in the area. According to a\u00a02003 treaty, the Sea of Azov is a jointly controlled territory that both countries are allowed to use freely.<\/span><\/p>\n

The US military already runs a maritime operations center located within Ukraine\u2019s Ochakov naval base.\u00a0The facility is an operational-level warfare command-and-control organization that is designed to deliver flexible maritime support throughout the full range of military operations. Hundreds of US and Canadian military instructors\u00a0are training<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0Ukrainian personnel at\u00a0the Yavorov firing range.<\/span><\/p>\n

NATO\u00a0has granted<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>Ukraine the status of an\u00a0aspirant country<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0\u2014 a step that is openly provocative toward Russia. Macedonia, Georgia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina are also aspirant nations. Last year, Ukraine\u2019s parliament\u00a0adopted a resolution<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0recognizing full membership in NATO as a foreign policy goal. In 2008, NATO agreed that Ukraine along with Georgia should become a full-fledged member. In March, Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia\u00a0announced<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0the formation of an alliance to oppose Russia.<\/span><\/p>\n

The US is to render substantial military assistance to a country with an economy\u00a0in the doldrums<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, reforms that have\u00a0foundered<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, a democracy that is in\u00a0question<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, and corruption\u00a0that is widespread<\/a><\/strong><\/span>. It will be no surprise if those weapons\u00a0fall into the wrong hands<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0and are used against the US military somewhere outside of Europe. It was the US State Department itself that\u00a0issued a report<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>this year slamming Ukraine\u2019s human-rights record. The UN human-rights commissioner\u00a0tells the same story<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.\u00a0So do<\/a>\u00a0human-rights monitors<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0all over the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

By supplying the weapons that Special Representative Volker talked about in his interview, the US will become an accomplice to a conflict that has nothing to do with its national security or interests. The situation in the Donbas is being used by Kiev to distract public attention from the country\u2019s worsening domestic problems. But to Washington Ukraine\u2019s government is the apple of its eye, \u201ca bastard but it\u2019s our bastard<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u201d <\/em>that is ready to do\u00a0what it\u2019s told<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The move is provocative and it may have consequences. For instance, Russia could supply the self-proclaimed republics in eastern Ukraine with up-to-date weapons systems in quantities sufficient to deter any military action on the part of Kiev. Once the Minsk accords are no longer functional and cannot command obedience, Moscow could recognize those republics as independent states that are eligible for military cooperation agreements, which would include stationing military bases on their soil. If their governments invited the Russian armed forces to be deployed inside their borders, it would be quite natural to agree to those requests. No international law would be breached. In a nutshell, if the US crosses that red line, Russia will act accordingly. Nobody seems to want a war raging in Ukraine, but that\u2019s what the US weapons supplies would promote, egging the Ukrainian government on to seek a military solution. And what if it loses? Washington would be to blame for such a scenario. By the way, is it a coincidence that Mr Volker\u2019s interview appeared just as Alexander Zakharchenko, the leader of the Donetsk self-proclaimed republic,\u00a0was assassinated<\/a><\/strong><\/span>? Just asking.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington plans to expand its military aid to Ukraine with new and advanced weapons<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[91,116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-175735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-russia","category-ukraine"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=175735"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":175778,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175735\/revisions\/175778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=175735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=175735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=175735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}