US Arms to Ukraine Would Result in US-Russia ‘Proxy War’ - Experts

Foreign policy experts said at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank said that the US provision of weapons to the Ukrainian military would result in a proxy war between the United States and Russia.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — A US decision to provide weapons to the Ukrainian military would result in a conflict between the United States and Russia, foreign policy experts said at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank on Thursday.

“Let’s make no mistake, what you’re arguing for is a proxy war against Russia,” the Carnegie Endowment’s Russia and Eurasia Program Director and former National Intelligence Council officer Eugene Rumer said.

During a debate over whether the US should provide weapons to Kiev, Rumer argued that those who advocate sending US arms have not considered the potential consequences, including how Russia could retaliate.

For the US to provide weapons to the Kiev government “is essentially to fight the Russian military with the hands of Ukrainian soldiers with us [the United States] in a sort of remote-control situation,” Rumer expalined.

Brookings Institution Fellow Jeremy Shapiro said that US arms shipments would be “portrayed as a war of the West against Russia… and at a certain level it will be.”

Shapiro commented that the potentially catastrophic consequences of delivering US arms have not been fully considered by those who advocate arming Kiev.

“Are we [the United States] ready to go to war against a nuclear power for the sake of Ukraine?” Shapiro asked, referring to a potential conflict with Russia.

A majority in the US Congress have argued for providing lethal military aid to Ukraine, and passed legislation calling on US President Barack Obama to arm Kiev. Obama has so far not enacted the legislation but has provided Ukraine with economic and non-lethal military support.