Kerry Pushes for US to Arm Ukraine

Almost Everyone in Administration Publicly Supports Arms Shipments

As France and Germany push for an end to the Ukrainian civil war, the Obama Administration seems to be poised to throw a bunch of additional arms at the conflict, with an eye toward shifting it in favor of the military.

Secretary of State John Kerry is the latest to go on record as being in favor of such shipments, with the Pentagon’s leadership, Vice President Biden, and Defense Secretary-nominee Ash Carter have all backed the shipments, claiming the war could be resolved if the US gave the Ukrainian government an overwhelming advantage in armament.

Susan Rice seems to be the last holdout, though a lot of experts and international officials are expressing fears that adding more arms to a war is just going to escalate it, and force Russia to add their own arms shipments on the rebel side, escalating the proxy war.

The arms shipments also put the US, despite claims they support a resolution of the war, at odds with the ceasefire efforts, and they’ve complained that since the September-January ceasefire collapsed the rebels have gained territory, so a new ceasefire will put them in a better bargaining position. Their long-term goal is to force an unconditional rebel surrender, which means keeping the war going in hopes of changing the situation on the ground.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.