In These New Times

Voltairenet

19th February, 2015

Initially it seemed surprising that on the first day of the negotiations marathon [1] in Minsk a bill to “provide lethal weapons to the Government of Ukraine in order to defend itself against Russian-backed rebel separatists in eastern Ukraine” would be introduced in the US Congress [2]. However, it soon became clear that its sponsor, Sen. James Inhofe, simply harbors no illusions [3] about his Ukrainian partners’ competence or ability to comply with their obligations. He understands that Kiev will inevitably violate the cease-fire and that Washington will soon have to explain why the militias in the devastated region of what is known as the “Debaltsevo cauldron” [4] are in possession of such a vast number of captured weapons originating from NATO countries.

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