Despite Ceasefire, Increasing Push for US to Arm Ukraine

Boehner: Send Arms to 'Stop Russian Aggression'

Despite a ceasefire having held in Ukraine’s Civil War for a couple of weeks now, US officials are still pushing the Obama Administration to follow through and start delivering arms to the Ukrainian military to fight this conflict.

US officials continue to insist the rebels are “violating” the ceasefire, despite death tolls in the conflict having fallen to virtually none, and are presenting this as Russia’s fault, despite Russia’s effort to negotiate the ceasefire, and a number of US officials openly opposing it.

House Speaker John Boehner (R – OH) is leading a Congressional push to arm Ukraine specifically to fight Russia, claiming Russia is in “grotesque violation of international law” and that the arms would stop them.

Though officials are publicly treating the arms as a cure-all for a civil war that is in a state of truce at any rate, privately many are conceding that sending the arms will force Russia to increase its own aid to the eastern rebels, and simply add fuel to the fire.

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.