12-27-17

The Trump administration has approved a plan to provide lethal weapons to Ukraine, a long-awaited move that deepens America’s involvement in the military conflict and may further strain relations with Russia. Moscow responded angrily on Saturday. The new arms include American-made Javelin anti-tank missiles, U.S. officials said late Friday.

Ukraine has long sought to boost its defenses against Russian-backed separatists armed with tanks that have rolled through eastern Ukraine during violence that has killed more than 10,000 since 2014. Previously, the U.S. has provided Ukraine with support equipment and training, and has let private companies sell some small arms like rifles.

The officials describing the plan weren’t authorized to discuss it publicly and demanded anonymity. The move is likely to become another sore point between Washington and Moscow, as President Donald Trump contends with ongoing questions about whether he’s too hesitant to confront the Kremlin.

Ukraine accuses Russia of sending the tanks, and the U.S. says Moscow is arming, training and fighting alongside the separatists

U.S PROVIDING JAVELIN ANTI-TANK MISSILES TO UKRAINE AGAINST RUSSIA

In this video, Defense Update analyses the impact of U.S PROVIDING JAVELIN ANTI-TANK MISSILES TO UKRAINE AGAINST RUSSIA.

Source Defense Updates 

TRUMP’S GO AHEAD

The intensified support for Ukraine’s military also comes amid early discussions about sending U.N. peacekeepers to eastern Ukraine, to improve security conditions not only for Ukrainians but for monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe who are on the ground. The U.S. and other nations were cautiously optimistic when Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed to send in peacekeepers. But there are major disagreements about how and where the peacekeepers would operate, especially about whether they’d be deployed only on the “line of conflict” between separatists and the government. The U.S. and Ukraine want peacekeepers deployed throughout the separatist-controlled regions stretching to the Ukraine-Russia border.

JAVELIN OVERVIEW

The FGM-148 Javelin is an American man-portable fire-and-forget anti-tank missile fielded to replace the M47 Dragon anti-tank missile in US service.It uses an automatic infrared guidance that allows the user to seek cover immediately after launch, as opposed to wired guided systems, like the Dragon, where the user has to actively guide the weapon throughout the engagement. It is manufactured by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. JAVELIN

FEATURES

The Javelin’s High-Explosive Anti-Tank (HEAT) warhead is capable of defeating modern tanks by attacking them from above where armor is generally thinner, and is also useful against fortifications in a direct attack flight. The tandem warhead is fitted with two shaped charges: a precursor warhead to detonate any explosive reactive armor and a primary warhead to penetrate base armor. It has a range of 4.75 km or around 3 miles.

REACTIONS

The State Department, responsible for overseeing foreign military sales, would not confirm that anti-tank missiles or other lethal weapons would be sent. But in a statement late Friday, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the U.S. had decided to provide “enhanced defensive capabilities” to help Ukraine build its military long-term, defend its sovereignty and “deter further aggression.” “U.S. assistance is entirely defensive in nature, and as we have always said, Ukraine is a sovereign country and has a right to defend itself,” Nauert said. The White House’s National Security Council declined to comment. In thanking the U.S. for its support, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko addressed the concerns over how the weapons would be used. “American weapons in the hands of Ukrainian soldiers are not for an offensive, but for a decisive rebuff of the aggressor, the protection of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians, as well as for effective self-defense,” he wrote on Facebook. “It is also a trans-Atlantic vaccination against the Russian virus of aggression.” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Rybakov said the U.S. decision will only make the conflict more deadly and suggested that Russia could be forced to respond. Rybakov said in a statement “U.S is not a mediator. It’s an accomplice in fueling the war,”

CONCLUSION

The United States, under Obama, also imposed sanctions on Russia for its invasion and annexation of Crimea. The Trump administration has insisted those sanctions will stay in place until Moscow gives up the Crimean Peninsula. Sending lethal weapons to Ukraine creates the troubling possibility that American arms could kill Russian soldiers, a situation that could thrust the two nuclear-armed nations closer to direct confrontation.

Source Defense Updates

U.S. decision to provide anti-tank missiles to Ukraine angers Russian leaders

President Trump’s long-delayed decision to provide Ukraine with defensive lethal weapons signaled a new willingness to oppose Russian intervention in its neighbor, but has made European allies nervous that a recent hike in fighting could escalate.

The State Department said Friday that the administration would supply the government in Kiev with Javelin anti-tank missiles to destroy armored vehicles used by Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, and to raise the cost of Russia’s intervention in the conflict.

The Trump administration said earlier in the week that it also would permit sales of some small arms to Ukraine from U.S. manufacturers.

Ukraine long had sought the portable infrared-guided Javelins to blunt the insurgents’ advances. But some U.S. officials worried that providing the weapons could provoke the Kremlin to step up its military role and ruin any chance of easing tensions with Moscow.

Kurt Volker, Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine, recently warned that the deadliest fighting since February had erupted in eastern Ukraine. More than 10,000 people have been killed since mid-2014, when Russian military forces seized the Crimean peninsula and began supporting armed separatists in eastern Ukraine against the government in Kiev.

Both the Pentagon and State Department had recommended supplying the anti-tank missiles earlier this year. Officials in both Washington and Kiev stressed that the anti-tank missiles are defensive in nature.

“American weapons in the hands of Ukrainian soldiers are not for offensive [use], but for stronger rebuff of the aggressor [and] protection of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians,” Ukraine’s president, Petro Poroshenko, said on Facebook. “It is also a trans-Atlantic vaccination against the Russian virus of aggression.”

Heather Nauert, the State Department spokeswoman, appeared to downplay the move. “U.S. assistance is entirely defensive in nature, and as we have always said, Ukraine is a sovereign country and has a right to defend itself,” she said.

Russia, which has officially denied supporting the insurgents in eastern Ukraine, called the U.S. decision “dangerous” and said Washington was acting as “an accomplice in fueling a war.”

Sergei Ryabkov, Russia’s deputy foreign secretary, also blamed what he called anti-Russian “Russophobia” in Washington for the decision to arm what Moscow portrays as fascist Ukrainian nationalists.

“U.S. weapons are capable of leading to new casualties in our neighboring country, and we cannot remain indifferent to that,” Ryabkov said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron did not overtly criticize the U.S. decision, but urged all combatants to abide by the much-violated 2015 ceasefire deal known as the Minsk Agreements.

France and Germany brokered the agreement, which called for withdrawal of heavy weapons from frontline positions, as well as safe delivery of humanitarian aid and the exchange of prisoners.

“There is no alternative to an exclusively peaceful solution to the conflict,” Merkel and Macron said in a joint statement.

Congress approved $500 million in aid to Ukraine this year, but some congressional leaders, including Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, urged the administration to also provide lethal weapons.

In a statement, McCain said providing the Javelins “sends a strong signal that the United States will stand by its allies and partners as they fight to defend their sovereignty and territorial integrity.” He added: “Providing defensive lethal assistance to Ukraine is not opposed to a peace in Ukraine — it is essential to achieving it.”

Although President Trump has sought to improve relations with Moscow, his administration continues to view Russia’s intervention in Ukraine as a critical point of tension.

“It stands as the single most difficult obstacle to us re-normalizing the relationship with Russia, which we badly would like to do,” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Nov. 28.

During the 2016 Republican National Convention, the Trump campaign removed language from the GOP platform that called for arming Ukraine, which long had been a popular Republican position.

Trump’s campaign manager was Paul Manafort, a lobbyist who had worked for pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine. In October, a federal grand jury indicted Manafort and his deputy, Richard Gates, on a dozen charges of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering for his work in Ukraine. They both have pleaded not guilty.

SOURCE tracy.wilkinson@latimes

#military #warPrep #USA #russia #ukraine

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