US mulls providing Kiev with arms

Moscow/Kiev, 

By considering giving weapons to Kiev, the United States could be contemplating a risky venture which advocates say would help end the conflict in Ukraine but opponents warn might fan the flames of war.A senior US administration official said on Monday no decision had been made on whether to send arms to help Ukrainian forces fight Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.Considering such a move stems from frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s refusal to blink over Ukraine, despite Western sanctions and a financial crisis in Russia, and concern over a surge in violence in past weeks.It also reflects a dilemma: What can the West do if sanctions don’t work, or don’t work quickly?“A stronger Ukrainian military, with enhanced defensive capabilities, will increase the prospects for negotiation of a peaceful settlement,” said a report by the Washington-based Atlantic Council, which suggested military aid should include light anti-armour missiles, drones and armoured Humvees.Such words are welcome to Kiev’s pro-Western leaders, whose forces have suffered battlefield setbacks and who accuse Russia of sending troops and weapons to back the rebels.Speaking in the northern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Tuesday, President Petro Poroshenko expressed confidence that Kiev’s Western allies would rally to its help if need be.“I do not have the slightest doubt that a decision about the possibility of supplying arms to Ukraine will be made by both the United States and our other partners because we must have the means to defend ourselves,” he was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency.Right now, Ukrainian troops holding a rail hub near the city of Donetsk are under pressure from separatists, whose artillery and missile attacks are commanded by Russian military specialists.Russia denies the accusations of direct involvement. It says Washington has shown its true colours by backing what Moscow regards as Kiev’s desire to end the crisis by crushing the rebels rather than though diplomacy.Sending arms to Kiev might not even have much effect on the conflict, critics say, and could encourage a full-scale Russian onslaught on Ukraine’s army that might increase the possibility of direct Western intervention.“Sending weapons is fanning the flame of this conflict and also actually grist to the mill for the Ukrainian government, which is doing everything it can to drag the United States and West further into this dispute,” said Otfried Nassauer, head of the Berlin Information Centre for Transatlantic Security. — ReutersShell lands near hospital in Donetsk, 3 dead

• At least two shells landed near a hospital in the separatist-controlled eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk on Wednesday, killing at least three persons nearby
• Pictures from the scene showed a huge crater in the ground in front of Hospital no. 27 in Donetsk’s Kirovsky district after shells struck the area
• A statement on the website of the rebel-controlled city administration said an artillery shell had hit the building and that there were dead and wounded
• A Reuters cameraman said the hospital itself had not been hit, though its front windows had been shattered by debris after one shell slammed into the ground

Western dilemma over delivery of weapons

• Western governments have shown little appetite for the idea of sending in international peacekeepers, which would likely have to include Russians and would be unacceptable to Kiev. And a line of thinking may be developing in the West that Putin may only respect force and will only blink if his bluff is called.
• Fifteen US senators wrote to President Barack Obama on Tuesday urging Washington and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation to “rapidly” increase military assistance to Ukraine with equipment such as anti-tank weapons, counter-battery radars and armoured Humvees

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