House and Senate lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are pushing the White House to make good on its commitment to send military aid to Ukraine, where a negotiated ceasefire has fallen through and U.S. European Command commander Gen. Philip Breedlove says Russia is pushing more weapons and troops across the border.
Eleven members of the Senate Armed Services Committee spoke to reporters Thursday about the need to provide “defensive, lethal assistance” to Ukraine to repel the attacks from Russian-backed separatists.
After the White House originally promised to send $120 million in supplies–nonlethal aid, including blankets and night-vision goggles–Congress included in its fiscal year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act a provision allowing lethal aid donations, SASC Ranking Member Jack Reed (D-R.I.) said at the press conference.
“The events of the past few weeks have demonstrated that Russia continues to violate its commitments and escalate its aggression against Ukraine,” he said. “Congress overwhelmingly supported providing the Ukraine lethal and nonlethal military assistance that is defensive and non-provocative in nature so that Ukraine can defend its territory and sovereignty from further aggression. Such defensive weapons could include anti-tank weapons and counter-battery radar systems. Building Ukraine’s capability to defend itself would raise the cost of further Russian-backed aggression and bolster deterrence of any new offensive.”
Reed added that the ultimate goal should be “political resolution of this crisis” between Ukraine and Russia, and that imposing additional costs on Russia to continue the aggression might encourage more serious talks about ending the conflict.
Breedlove, in an interview with the Associated Press, warned that the Russians might escalate the crisis if the United States sends lethal weapons to Ukraine. He said that Ukraine had the right to defend itself but that any U.S. intervention should be made only if it will make a political resolution more achievable.
SASC Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) dismissed the idea of not sending weapons for fear of further Russian aggressions, saying “we’re frankly at the end of the line here. You just can’t stand by and watch people being slaughtered with superior equipment. Blankets don’t do very well against tanks. So some of us believe … that the price, as a number of my colleagues said, that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin might pay for further aggression might be the deterrent that we’re looking for. If he thinks he’s getting away literally with murder then I think he may be encouraged to do so.”
McCain said he did not know how much aid the United States should send when asked what sort of spending cap the White House should have. He also would not specify weapons systems but said “everybody knows what they need: right now they have no ability to counter Russian tanks, that really makes for wholesale slaughter when you cannot defend against Russian tanks which have flowed in from Russia to the separatists’ area.”
He also promised further action if the White House did not act soon, saying “we’re asking in a bipartisan fashion, but we’ll be looking at marking up legislation that calls for it again.”
On the House side, House Armed Services tactical air and land forces subcommittee chairman Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) wrote an op-ed in Defense One, arguing that “the president must change course and provide lethal assistance to Ukraine in order to bolster Ukrainian national security, prepare the Ukrainian army to confront the Russian threat, and help restore stability throughout the region.”
“This past fall, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko addressed a joint session of Congress and strongly reiterated his request for ‘more military equipment, both lethal and non-lethal, urgently,’ arguing ‘one cannot win the war with blankets.’ Notably, he stated, ‘In Ukraine, you don’t build a democracy. It already exists. You just defend it.’ Instead of aiding Ukraine with the systems they specifically requested, the United States has persisted with its policy of solely providing non-lethal aid,” he wrote. With a joint think tank report and Defense Secretary-nominee Ashton Carter this week advocating lethal aid to Ukraine, Turner stated that “the president must take immediate and decisive action to provide Ukraine with the lethal assistance required to confront and deter Putin’s ongoing aggression.”