Can weapons from the US really help end Ukraine's brutal war? - Global Post: Several editorials in American newspapers were in favor of the West arming Ukraine. "For now, however, the United States and its European Union allies must consider how to stop the ongoing military aggression in Ukraine and deter Mr. Putin from further adventures," The Washington Post's editorial board argues. "The clear answer is direct military support to the Ukrainian army."
- Get link
- Other Apps
Enlarge
A Ukrainian soldier stands watch on a road between Debaltseve and the Ukrainian-controlled town of Artemivsk, in the Donetsk region, on Feb. 2, 2015. (Manu Brabo/AFP/Getty Images)
Should the West provide arms to Ukrainian forces?
The answer, according to eight former US officials, is a resounding yes.
In a report released this week, the officials, including two former US ambassadors to Ukraine and an ex-NATO military commander, called for the US to supply $1 billion in lethal aid to Ukraine this year.
Ukraine, which has been entrenched in an unrelenting and deadly war with pro-Russian separatists, should receive light anti-armor missiles to defend itself given "the large numbers of armored vehicles that the Russians have deployed in Donetsk and Luhansk," the report's authorssaid.
The overarching rationale for arming Ukraine's army is to bolster its defense capabilities to "allow it to inflict significant costs on the Russian military, should the Russians launch new offensive operations," they stated.
The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal report that the White House is considering whether it should send weapons to Ukraine.
"Top White House advisers to the president are expected to discuss Ukraine options this week, but officials said it isn't clear if a decision will be made then," The Wall Street Journal's Julian E. Barnes and Adam Antous report.
There are approximately 65,000 fighters deployed in what is called the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) zone in eastern Ukraine, the majority from the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, according to Teksty.org, a site based in Kyiv providing news and analysis on the war. The rest is made up of a number of volunteer militias of the National Guard, including the Donbass battalion.
While the number of pro-Russian separatists is difficult to pin down (reports suggest the figure is in the thousands), rebel head Alexander Zakharchenko said Monday that the separatists want to add 100,000 men to their forces, the BBC reports.
"It does not mean we will take in 100,000, but the joint army of Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics' army should be 100,000," Zakharchenko was quoted as saying by the BBC.
Although Ukraine's armed forces have made gains in war wrecking the east, they have also suffered debilitating strategic defeats, in addition to the mounting death toll. More than 5,000 people have been killed since the unrest erupted in November 2013, the United Nations says.
Most notable of these defeats is the symbolic and strategic loss of the International Airport in Donetsk last month.
The fall of the airport opens up the possibility of providing an avenue to resupply separatists, if neighboring towns fall into their hands, The Economist notes.
One possible reason for Ukraine's defeats is the sophistication of electronic warfare employed by separatists.
"It is very difficult for Ukrainian forces to be able to operate on radios, telephones and other non-secure means of communications because their opponents have such an exceptional amount of jamming capability," US Lieutenant General Ben Hodges told Agence France-Presse.
Meanwhile, the suffering of civilians caught in war zones is worsening with the recent resurgence in fighting in eastern Ukraine.
Many, including children and the elderly, are seeking protection from shelling in underground shelters in Donetsk.
As with any protracted global conflict, the debate over finding political and military solutions to end Ukraine's war is as convoluted as the war itself.
Several editorials in American newspapers were in favor of the West arming Ukraine.
"For now, however, the United States and its European Union allies must consider how to stop the ongoing military aggression in Ukraine and deter Mr. Putin from further adventures," The Washington Post's editorial board argues. "The clear answer is direct military support to the Ukrainian army."
Some experts say the US is well placed to assist the country.
"The US has the best kit, it is probably in the best position to control its use, and is less vulnerable to bilateral economic or energy-supply pressures," Timothy Garten Ash, professor of European Studies at Oxford University, writes in an op-ed in The Guardian.
But if the West were to boost Ukraine's military, it might lead to an escalation in the war for it could "force Moscow to counter by increasing its own support for the separatists," Radio Free Europepoints out.
Others contend that Ukraine needs to step up and make better use of its resources at hand by implementing a well-defined and precise defense plan.
Mark Galeotti, clinical professor of Global Affairs at New York University, writes:
First and most fundamentally, there is no meaningful strategy, the essential game plan that ought to drive every aspect of the war. Is it to win the war on the battlefield by encircling and besieging Donetsk? ... It is hard to tell how far this is a failing of political leadership, military leadership or operational command.
Some heads of state and analysts are maintaining their stance on finding a diplomatic resolution to the war.
On Monday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for renewing a ceasefire deal between Ukraine and separatists that has essentially failed (again). Merkel spoke out against supporting Ukraine through weapons delivery.
International watchdog group Human Rights Watch, which has been investigating attacks in eastern Ukraine, said there has been a "failure to enforce justice for serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law" since the conflict started.
"Two of the deadliest attacks with civilian casualties in recent fighting were due to the unlawful use of unguided rockets by the Russian-backed rebels," Ole Solvang, senior emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. "All sides should reject the use of these weapons in populated areas."
More from GlobalPost: Ukraine's war is getting worse, and not everyone wants to fight
GlobalPost's senior correspondent Dan Peleschuk in Kyiv, Ukraine contributed research for this piece.
<a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/150202/us-ponders-military-aid-ukraine-fighting-intensifies" rel="nofollow">http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/150202/us-ponders-military-aid-ukraine-fighting-intensifies</a>
Read the whole story
· · · · · ·
In a report released this week, former US officials made the case for the US to arm Ukraine's military.
 Haaretz |
Israel gave the UN information that led to head of Gaza probe's resignation
Haaretz William Schabas quit amid allegations of anti-Israel bias; Schabas says he did not want personal attacks to detract from inquiry. By Barak Ravid | Feb. 3, 2015 | 4:13 PM. submit to reddit. The UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. Photo by Reuters. Text size. and more » |
 BBC News |
Ukraine conflict: Putin urged to free 'spy mother'
BBC News Some 40,000 Russians have signed a petition urging President Vladimir Putin to release a mother of seven held over alleged spying for Ukraine. Mr Putin has received the petition and will consider it, his spokesman said. Svetlana Davydova was arrested last ... Husband of Russian treason suspect called in for questioningDaily Mail Thousands petition Putin to free mother of seven accused of treasonPeninsula On-line all 52 news articles » |
CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's economic failings are turning it into the "laughing-stock" of Latin America, according to late president Hugo Chavez's top economic planner.
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- Numerous store brand supplements aren't what their labels claim to be, an ongoing investigation of popular herbal supplements subjected to DNA testing has found, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Tuesday....
Next Page of Stories
Loading...
Page 2
The Islamic State (IS) group is planning to carry out terrorist attacks in Uzbekistan in the spring, an officer with Uzbekistan's domestic intelligence agency, the National Security Service (SNB), has been reported as saying.
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird announced on Tuesday he was resigning, a move that leaves the Conservative government short of a senior figure in the run-up to the general election set for this October.
Film star’s appeal to US first lady, an old friend, was rejected because Aids was seen as gay disease, say critics of administration’s record
Nancy Reagan refused to help Rock Hudson, one of the leading Hollywood stars of the 1950s and 1960s, as he sought treatment for Aids from a pioneering doctor in Paris, it has been revealed.
Hudson, who kept his homosexuality secret while starring in a string of box-office hits with actors such as Elizabeth Taylor and Doris Day, flew to France in July 1985, during the last months of his life, to seek experimental treatment with the drug HPA-23 that was unavailable in the US.
Continue reading...Fidel Castro Photographs Published in Cuban Newspaperby By VICTORIA BURNETT
The pictures were the first to be published since rumors about Mr. Castro’s death swirled through Havana and Miami in December.
Netanyahu to UN: Drop War Crimes Inquiryby webdesk@voanews.com (Robert Berger)
A day after the resignation of the head of a United Nations investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyanhu on Tuesday called for scrapping the probe. William Schabas on Monday evening had submitted his resignation as leader of a three-member commission charged with investigating whether Israel committed war crimes during last summer’s conflict in Gaza. The commission, set up last August by the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council, is scheduled...
Charlie Hebdo Sets Date for Next Issue by By MAÏA de la BAUME
The satirical weekly, the target of a terrorist attack at its Paris offices last month that left 12 people dead, will publish its next issue Feb. 25.
Next Page of Stories
Loading...
Page 3
Harper Lee to publish new novel by Alison Flood
Go Set a Watchman, completed in the mid-50s but lost for more than half a century, was written before to To Kill A Mockingbird and features Scout as an adult
Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, is to publish her second novel, Go Set a Watchman this summer, a work which the reclusive author had believed lost for decades, and in which her beloved character Scout will be seen as an adult.
The shock news will delight the 88-year-old writer’s millions of fans, who have waited in vain for a second novel from Lee since 1960, when she released her debut, To Kill a Mockingbird, the tale of racism in the American south which has captivated readers ever since.
Continue reading...
NICE, France (Reuters) - Two French soldiers were wounded in a knife attack in the city of Nice on Tuesday, a police source said.
A lawyer for a Russian woman accused of treason for allegedly reporting to the Ukrainian Embassy about possible troop movements says his client will be released from custody by the end of February 3.
NEW YORK (AP) -- "To Kill a Mockingbird" will not be Harper Lee's only published book after all....
 Fox News |
UK says it's OK to make babies from DNA of 3 people
MiamiHerald.com British lawmakers voted to let scientists use controversial techniques to create babies from the DNA of three people – a move that could prevent children from inheriting potentially fatal diseases. The move makes Britain the first country in the world to allow ... UK House of Commons OKs making babies from DNA of 3 people Washington Post A look at the UK's proposal to make babies from 3 people |
British lawmakers to vote on creating three-person babies (w/video)Tampabay.com
all 146 news articles »
- Get link
- Other Apps
Putin won't look for the diplomatic decision will believe in military defeat of the Ukrainian army so far.
ReplyDeleteRefusal of military aid to Ukraine will stop Putin? It is silly. Lack of the weapon at the opponent never stopped an aggressor. Arms supplies from Russia proceed. Not to provide weapons for Ukraine simply increases Russia's temptation to escalate the intervention
Russian separatist don't want a better life for the Donbas residents. They are just in it for the fight and don't care who gets killed.
If Ukraine receives weapons and Putin will stop the Russian separatist will agree about the termination of military operation. Without it any diplomatic decision waits for a fate of the Minsk and Budapest Memorandum.
Putin won't look for the diplomatic decision will believe in military defeat of the Ukrainian army so far.
ReplyDeleteRefusal of military aid to Ukraine will stop Putin? It is silly. Lack of the weapon at the opponent never stopped an aggressor. Arms supplies from Russia proceed. Not to provide weapons for Ukraine simply increases Russia's temptation to escalate the intervention
Russian separatist don't want a better life for the Donbas residents. They are just in it for the fight and don't care who gets killed.
If Ukraine receives weapons and Putin will stop the Russian separatist will agree about the termination of military operation. Without it any diplomatic decision waits for a fate of the Minsk and Budapest Memorandum.