“We hope the [Obama] administration will submit a report to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee later this month that clearly states your readiness to supply appropriate lethal assistance to the Ukrainian government and provides details of the specific weapons to be delivered,” Corker stated.
By doing so, Obama would be fully implementing the authorization Congress recently provided the White House to send such aid, which Corker said was critical to demonstrate that the United States and its allies were “more invested in Ukraine’s success than Russia is in its failure.”
On December 13, 2014, Congress unanimously passed the Ukraine Freedom Support Act, which requires the administration to apply sanctions against Russian defense entities and provide lethal aid to Kiev, Corker said. The act also requires the President to submit a report to Congress by February 15 with details on military assistance to Ukraine, “including defensive weapons,” the Senator added.
On Thursday US Senator John McCain, who serves as a Chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services, told Sputnik that additional US military advisors will be required on the ground if the United States provides the Ukrainian government with lethal military equipment, adding that Ukraine will require Javelin anti-tank missile systems, as well as intelligence support from the United States.
The United Nations estimates that over 5,000 have been killed in the fighting, while some 1.4 million residents of southeastern Ukraine desperately need humanitarian assistance.
In April 2014, Kiev-led forces launched a military operation against the region’s mostly Russian-speaking independence supporters who opposed Ukraine’s new post-coup government.
