Ukraine can get ground-to-air missiles from the US

In the 2018 year, after several years of internal debates, which began even before the presidential administration of Donald Trump came to power, the United States began to supply Ukraine with modern Javelin anti-tank missiles.

Фото: Depositphotos

Then some expressed fears that by this step the United States would turn Moscow against itself. Now, US lawmakers want to raise the stakes again by adopting a law allowing the delivery of ground-to-air missiles to Kiev, writes “Voice of America".

This idea is incorporated into the draft law amending the US Department of Defense Financing Act. The amendment excludes the current provision prohibiting the sale of such missiles, called man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS).

The amendment was initiated by two leading legislators of the House of Representatives Committee on International Affairs - Democrat Eliot Engel and Republican Michael McCall. It is expected that it will be adopted fairly quickly, but this does not mean that arms supplies to Ukraine will begin immediately.

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The final decision must be approved by many government departments, including the Department of Defense.

Moreover, the use by Ukrainians of ground-to-air missiles is still limited. Russian-backed separatists do not have fighter planes, and if Russia sends its aircraft to Ukraine, it will undermine Moscow’s claims that it does not interfere in the conflict.

Nevertheless, such a step would be a clear signal to the Kremlin about the position of the Congress regarding the war in Ukraine. According to the former US ambassador to Ukraine Stephen Peifer, this is the logical next step after the decision of the US to supply Javelin missiles to the Ukrainian armed forces.

“I don’t think it will cause more problems than the appearance of Javelin missiles. We are not talking about supplying Ukraine with F-35 fighter jets or M-1 tanks, ”said Pifer, who today works at the Freeman-Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University.

The Pentagon has not yet responded to the request to comment on the possible supply of missiles to Ukraine.

One American diplomat, who worked on Ukrainian issues, advised not to attach much importance to the amendment, stating on condition of anonymity that it simply eliminates "an arbitrary restriction that does not exist for most countries."

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The initiative is part of a wider Congress effort to increase military support for Ukraine. Two separate bills, which are pending in the House of Representatives and the Senate, provide for Ukraine to provide annual military assistance in the amount of up to 300 million dollars - more than in previous years.

Since 2014, Ukraine has received assistance from the United States totaling more than 3 billions of dollars, but only part of this assistance was in the area of ​​security.

When Washington agreed to supply Ukraine with Javelin missiles, Moscow reacted with indignation. However after 210 missiles and 37 launchers arrived in this country in April 2018, there were few comments from Russian officials on this matter.

US Special Representative in Ukraine Kurt Walker said that Javelin complexes are stored in a safe place away from the front line.

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The House of Representatives also registered a bill that for the first time calls for supplying Ukraine with anti-ship missiles and coastal defense weapons - in response to the November incident, when Russian warships seized three Ukrainian ships and 24 sailors in the Kerch Strait near the Crimean Peninsula.

The history of the conflict in the Kerch Strait

On the morning of November 25, the Ukrainian small armored boats Berdyansk and Nikopol, as well as the tug Yana Kapu, began a planned transition from Odessa to Mariupol. At the Kerch Strait, they were met by Russian border ships, one of which rammed a Ukrainian tug. As a result, the Russian frontier guards with shooting captured three Ukrainian ships in the Kerch Strait area and 24 captured Ukrainian servicemen.

As stated in the FSB, they illegally crossed the Russian border and did not respond to the requirement to stop. The Ukrainian Navy said they had warned the Russian side in advance about the transition, but the Russian border guards did not respond to the message of the Ukrainian ships.

Ukrainian authorities have accused Russia of aggression. After this incident, on November 26, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine voted to introduce martial law for a period of 30 days in 10 regions of the country and in the territory of the inland waters of the Azov-Kerch water area.

November 29 US President Donald Trump canceled the meeting with the head of Russia Vladimir Putin, which was to be held in Argentina on the sidelines of the G20 summit. The reason for the cancellation was the situation with the Ukrainian ships captured in the Kerch Strait, explained Trump in his microblog Twitter.

30 November US senators saidthat Moscow’s actions are “provocative”, destabilize the region and cause further escalation of the conflict.

16 April 2019 Ukraine requested the maritime tribunal to take urgent measures against Russia in order to free the Ukrainian sailors and ships seized in the Kerch Strait. Ukrainian sailors are still in Russian captivity, criminal proceedings have been initiated against them.

25 May International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea He has made a decisionin which he ordered Russia to immediately release two Ukrainian warships and an auxiliary vessel and 24 Ukrainian sailors captured near the Kerch Strait in November 2018, and allow them to return home, thereby meeting Ukraine’s demands.

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