US to consider backing Ukrainian forces?
PR dla Zagranicy
Victoria Bieniek
25.07.2017 10:39
The US may consider sending arms to support Ukrainian soldiers in their fight against Russian-backed rebels, according to Kurt Volker, who was appointed to the newly created post of special US representative for Ukrainian negotiations earlier this month.
Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0
Volker told the BBC that supporting Ukraine’s defence would force Moscow to reconsider its approach without provoking Russia.
“Defensive weapons, ones that would allow Ukraine to defend itself, and to take out tanks for example, would actually … help” stop the Russian threat,” Volker told the BBC.
According to the United Nations, 10,000 people have died since conflict erupted in the Donbass region in April 2014 – following Russia’s annexation of Crimea – and a further 1.6 million have been displaced, the BBC said.
Meanwhile, the terms of the so-called Minsk ceasefire deals have largely not been met.
Last week, five soldiers died in heavy shelling and three others when a mine blew up in what the US State Department said was the deadliest day in the conflict in 2017, according to the BBC. (vb/pk)