Levin, Inhofe: Give Ukraine lethal weapons

The leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee are pressing the Obama administration to begin providing Ukraine with lethal weapons to defend itself from Russia.

“We believe now is the time to add defensive military aid, including weapons, to our support of Ukraine,” committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and ranking member James Inhofe (R-Okla.) wrote in a Washington Post op-ed on Monday.

{mosads}”Ukrainian forces are suffering significant casualties from artillery fire, a result of the heavy weapons provided, and probably operated, by Russia on behalf of the rebels,” they added. 

In March, Russian forces annexed the Ukrainian Crimean Peninsula. Moscow has continued to provide aid, including military weapons, to pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, threatening another land grab. A missile fired by rebel groups is believed to have brought down a Malaysia Airlines flight this summer. 

The White House has supplied Ukrainian forces with $150 million in nonlethal military equipment, such as food, body armor, medical supplies and sleeping mats, but it has hesitated to provide weapons, fearing it could escalate the violence.

The U.S. has also bolstered military exercises with Eastern European partners and imposed economic sanctions with the European Union.

Levin and Inhofe, though, argued that supplying weapons to Ukraine would not threaten Russia, but would instead be a strong deterrent to further aggression.

“This would present no threat to Russia unless its forces launch further aggression against Ukraine. In other words, these weapons are lethal but not provocative because they are defensive,” they said. 

“Such weapons could include anti-tank weapons to defend against Russian-provided armored personnel carriers, ammunition, vehicles and secure communications equipment.”

The senators’ call comes as Ukraine and Russia agreed to resume natural gas deliveries ahead of winter but failed to reach a solution on Moscow’s support for separatist groups. Russia had cut off Ukraine’s natural gas earlier this year, when the two sides were unable to reach an agreement over Ukraine’s debt and gas prices.

After the talks concluded this weekend, Russian President Vladimir Putin repeatedly referred to the embattled eastern Ukrainian region as “Novorossiya,” or “New Russia,” the Voice of America reported.

Levin and Inhofe called Russian aggression against Ukraine a threat to U.S. interests, saying it undermined stability throughout Europe and said Kiev’s fight is a “cause worth supporting.”

“While there is no purely military solution to what is a political problem, additional U.S. military assistance can help promote a political solution by raising the costs of further aggression by Russia,” they wrote.

“Raising the costs will give Putin pause to allow political and economic pressure from outside and within Russia to force a political accommodation.”