Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, will travel to Ukraine this week, hoping the conflict at the Russian border is nearing an end but willing to push the U.S. government to send weapons if the conflict drags on.

Nelson told reporters Monday afternoon that he had received news the situation in Eastern Ukraine is about to come to a head–Ukraine’s army has surrounded rebels in the stronghold of Donetsk and in nearby Luhansk, and he expects that within a week either Ukraine will take back its territory from separatists or Russia will invade to support the rebels.

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee
Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee

If Ukraine cannot defeat the Russian-backed separatists soon, Nelson said the Obama administration needs to move beyond economic sanctions and humanitarian aid.

“The place that I differ from the president is that he thus far has not been willing to give arms, or in other words lethal aid. I support giving arms to the government of Ukraine in order to help them protect themselves from the big Russian bear,” he said.

Ukraine has made several requests to the United States in the past few weeks, Nelson said, for food and water, medical supplies and weapons. The administration has sent humanitarian aid but has drawn the line at lethal aid.

“It is my belief you want to help them arm themselves,” Nelson said, advocating sending trucks, armored personnel vehicles, ammunition and weapons as needed.

Nelson said U.S. European Command (EUCOM) Commander Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove invited SASC members to come to Ukraine several months ago to meet with local leaders and see the conflict firsthand. Nelson will take the general up on his offer in a trip that relies on commercial flights but will involve a Navy lieutenant as his escort. Nelson will travel to Ukraine’s capitol, Kiev, to meet with President Petro Poroshenko, diplomats in the U.S. embassy and EUCOM representatives. He will then travel to Lithuania, another former Soviet country, to discuss its concerns regarding Russian aggression, and then to Turkey to discuss the threat of the Islamic State, formerly called the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Nelson told reporters he supports targeted air strikes in Kurdistan, an autonomous region in Northern Iraq, to push back ISIL and prevent its fighters from attacking religious minorities in the region.

“I will support whatever arms are necessary,” Nelson said of his support for the Kurdish military, the peshmerga. “This is where I would give some disagreement, but I think the president will come around to this–I think we ought to be giving arms to the Kurds to help them protect themselves.”