Ukraine's president Petro Poroshenko asked the United States for lethal military aid to resist advances of Russian-backed separatists in a forceful plea to Congress but the request was rebuffed, with the Obama administration insisting on diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis.
Mr Poroshenko received a rousing reception from lawmakers when he spoke before a rare joint session of Congress in a symbolic display of US support for a country locked in conflict with Russia over its seizure of Crimea and for backing separatists in eastern parts of Ukraine.
He said Ukraine required more political support and more military equipment beyond the non-lethal kind that the US has provided the former Soviet republic.
To sustained applause and whoops from some lawmakers, Mr Poroshenko, on his first visit to Washington since his election in May, said his soldiers “urgently need” military equipment: “Please understand me correctly: blankets, night vision goggles are also important but one cannot win the war with the blankets.”
Keep the peace
He said Ukraine required military equipment not just to “win the war, but to keep the peace”. His 40-minute speech was interrupted on numerous occasions by standing ovations and applause.
The request may have been warmly received by politicians on Capitol Hill but it fell on deaf ears at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, where Mr Poroshenko afterwards met president Barack Obama.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest ruled out assisting Ukraine with lethal military assistance, saying Mr Obama believes diplomacy is the most effective way to resolve the crisis. Republicans have called for the US to supply the Kiev government with more powerful military equipment but the Obama administration has resisted moving beyond economic sanctions unish Russia or non-lethal military aid, fearing it might escalate the conflict.
Military equipment
Economic penalties have achieved little to break the resolve of Russian president
Vladimir Putin
, with the West condemning the Kremlin in recent weeks for moving troops and military equipment across Russia’s border into eastern Ukraine, despite a ceasefire between Kiev and separatists being in place since September 5th.
The White House said Mr Poroshenko’s visit would send out an important signal of American support for Ukraine.
Mr Poroshenko told Congress in an emotional and defiant speech that Ukraine’s conflict with Russia was “Europe’s war, America’s war and a war for the free world”, warning that the Kremlin with its “imperial mindset” and “nostalgia for the Soviet Union” may act similarly in other countries with large Russian-speaking populations. “If they are not stopped now, they will cross the European border and spread absolutely throughout the world,” he said.
Coinciding with his visit, the US pledged $53 million (€41 million) in fresh support to Ukraine, comprising $46 million to strengthen the country’s defences, including, for the first time, radar equipment to detect incoming artillery, and $7 million in humanitarian aid.
Since April, more than 3,000 people have died in the fighting.
