US to provide Ukraine with lethal weapons
The United States will provide Ukraine with "enhanced defensive capabilities," the State Department said on Friday, as Kiev battles Russian-backed separatists in the eastern part of the country.
"US assistance is entirely defensive in nature, and as we have always said, Ukraine is a sovereign country and has a right to defend itself," the department said in a statement.
It said the decision was part of the US effort to help Ukraine defend its territorial integrity and "deter further aggression," but did not specify the capabilities being considered, reported Reuters.
Earlier on Friday, ABC News reported that President Donald Trump was expected to approve the sale of anti-tank missiles to Ukraine, citing State Department sources. Any sale would need congressional approval.
Ukraine and Russia are at loggerheads over a war in eastern Ukraine between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government forces that has killed more than 10,000 people in three years. Kiev accuses Moscow of sending troops and heavy weapons to the region, which Russia denies.
Moscow warned yesterday that Washington was encouraging "new bloodshed" in eastern Ukraine by its decision to provide the ex-Soviet nation with lethal weapons.
In a strongly-worded statement Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov accused the United States of "crossing the line" and fomenting the conflict in eastern Ukraine, a region known locally as Donbass, reported AFP.
"Kiev revanchists are shooting at Donbass every day, they don't want to conduct peace negotiations and dream of doing away with the disobedient population. And the United States has decided to give them weapons to do that," Ryabkov said.
The leaders of Germany and France yesterday called for all sides in the Ukraine conflict to "face their responsibilities" after a rise in ceasefire violations in the east of the country.
"There is no alternative to an exclusively peaceful settlement of the conflict," German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement.
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