Ukrainian president makes emotional plea to Congress for greater military aid

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/18/ukrainian-president-congress-us-support

Version 0 of 1.

Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko called on the US to provide his forces with military weapons to fight Russia, in an emotional appeal to a joint session of Congress in which he claimed the world was on the edge of a new cold war.

“They [Ukrainian forces] need more military equipment, both lethal and non-lethal … urgently need,” said Poroshenko, whose forces have currently only received non-lethal supplies from Nato. “Blankets and night-vision googles are also important, but one cannot win the war with blankets,” he added. “Even more, we cannot keep the peace with blankets.”

The White House responded to the speech by issuing a factsheet listing other US assistance measures to the Ukraine such as economic aid, but has been reluctant to include weapons, fearing it could never bridge the gulf in military capabilities with Russia and may trigger wider escalation.

Nevertheless, Poroshenko’s aggressive appeal for greater US support was warmly received on Capitol Hill, where he received numerous standing ovations during an address lasting nearly an hour.

“The United States made a commitment that it would stand behind Ukraine’s territorial integrity and we hope that it will live up to that promise,” he said, to loud applause. “It is Europe and America’s war too; it is a war for the free world,” added Poroshenko.

Ukraine’s blunt request for military support, delivered shortly before a separate meeting at the White House, comes despite ratcheting economic sanctions from Europe and the US and a recent tentative ceasefire with Russia.

But the Ukrainian president said continued fighting since the ceasefire showed the ongoing threat not just to his country’s territorial integrity but other neighbours such as Georgia and Moldova.

“The free world must stand its ground,” he said, claiming it faced the worst security threat since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis and a “choice between civilisation and barbarism”.

Poroshenko also argued that a failure to uphold the Budapest memorandum – a post cold-war agreement to give up Ukrainian nuclear weapons in exchange for international guarantees of sovereignty – meant that Russia’s subsequent invasion would hamper future arms control efforts.

“Ukraine, which gave up the third largest nuclear potential in exchange for security assurance, instead was attacked by one of the countries that provided those assurances,” Poroshenko told senators and congressmen gathered in the House of Representatives.

“Many things, including the effectiveness of the the global non-proliferation system, will be put under a severe test, depending on the response of America – of the whole world – to this very simple question,” he added.

Poroshenko provided few details of his request for US weaponry, but criticised Russia for supplying arms to Ukrainian separatists, blaming it for the Malaysian airline attack and a proliferation of land mines and hand guns.

“The act of pumping the region full of uncontrolled arms represents a policy of state-funded terrorism – and it needs to stop now,” said the Ukrainian president. “Whoever floods Europe with uncontrolled weapons put millions of lives at risk,” he added.