You're reading: Lawmakers, experts hope that US gives Ukraine lethal weapons

The United States still hasn't decided whether to provide lethal weapons to Ukraine as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry prepares to visit Kyiv on Feb. 5. But Ukraine’s politicians and military experts say U.S. and other military assistance will be crucial for the country in its war against Russia.

Nearly a year after the start of Russia’s war, beginning with the invasion of Crimea in February and moving to the eastern Donbas in April, more than 5,000 people have been killed and more than 12,000 wounded, according to United Nations estimates.

Speaking in parliament on Feb. 3, all lawmakers polled by the Kyiv Post said they expected U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will bring positive news for Ukraine during his visit to Kyiv, scheduled on Feb. 5.

“They were guarantors of our security, so they have to give us weapons,” said Mykhailo Bondar, lawmaker from People’s Front and a former commander of a unit with the Kulchitsky Battalion of the National Guard. “They are obliged to do so.”

Bondar refuted a common argument that, by supplying weapons to Ukraine, its Western allies may provoke Kremlin to start a full-scale war against Ukraine. “I think Russia will rather start a full-scale campaign if we stay weak, if we won’t be resisting, if we keep defending and refusing from any attacks,” he said.

Serhiy Taruta, independent lawmaker and former governor of Donetsk Oblast, said modern and high-precision weapons supplied by the U.S. would help to save many lives both of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians. 

“Today in order to hit the target a soldier has to come out and become visible for the enemy, but with modern weapons he will be able to shoot based on coordinates,” Taruta said. “The high-precision arms would be efficient against tanks, Grads, Uragans (multiple-rocket launchers) which are now used against not only soldiers but also the civilians in the east.”  

Popular military blogger and lawmaker of People’s Front Dmytro Tymchuk said modern weapons will be efficient but they will also require additional training for the soldiers. “So if we speak about possibility that some countries give or sell us high-technology weapons, so we need to create special training programs,” Tymchuk said.

Yulia Tymoshenko, leader of the Batkivshyna Party in Parliament, claimed that Ukraine needs to start negotiations with its Western partners to obtain lethal assistance. “We should understand that the democratic world is willing to grant Ukraine effective weapons, but their commitment to give us weapons doesn’t necessarily mean they would actually arm Ukraine,” she said, speaking at a briefing in Parliament.  

A Kyiv Post source in the Bloc of President Petro Poroshenko, who refused to be identified because he didn’t want to preempt any public announcement by Ukraine’s leader, said the chances are increasing that Ukraine will get a positive signal during Kerry’s visit to Ukraine. This week will be decisive, he added.

Hanna Hopko, the chairwoman of the Verkhovna Rada’s foreign relations committee, said that modern weapons are critical to countering Russian military offensives. “Our soldiers die and civilians very day,” she said. Hopko noted that parliament is also seeking to bolster its own defense budget this year, to more than $5 billion, when the Defense Ministry and Interior Ministry are combined. 

Serhiy Zhurets, head of Defense Express information and analysis center, said that the Ukrainian army still lacks armored vehicles after it lost a lot of them during the Russian-led massacre of Donetsk Oblast’s Ilovaisk in August. “We are fighting with the weapons of the Second World War and we have not enough of them,” Zgurets said.

Valentyn Badrak, head of the Center for Army, Conversion, and Disarmament Studies, believes the U.S. will agree to send weapons to Ukraine “sooner or later.” But from European states, Ukraine may expect only to buy modern military technologies from private companies.     

Badrak said the U.S. and Europe have to be more decisive on Ukraine to deter more Russian attacks. Russia sent its regular forces into Ukraine in August after the Ukrainian military came close to routing the Russian proxies in battle. And now it appears that Russia is poised to launch a full-scale attack on Debaltseve, a key transportation hub linking Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, that the Ukrainian army has been fiercely trying to hold.

“Russia makes its new steps after the West keeps silence,” the expert said.

Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Grytsenko can be reached at [email protected]. Kyiv Post staff writer Olena Goncharova contributed reporting to the story. She can be reached at [email protected]