Not 'Sales' of Weapons to Ukraine, but 'Gifts' (Rzeczpospolita, Poland)

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Angel Merkel and Francois Hollande in Kiev with Ukraine President

Petro Poroshenko, just after Secretary John Kerry, yesterday. Today,

the Merkel-Hollande duo are in Moscow to meet with Vladimir Putin.

Without a breakthrough, should the NATO allies arm Ukraine?

Not 'Sales' of Weapons to Ukraine, but 'Gifts' (Rzeczpospolita, Poland)

"This conflict is going to continue, because the Kremlin hasn't realized its goal: the subjugation of Ukraine. The Kremlin is the aggressor. Russian troops are on the territory of a neighbor and are shooting its soldiers. No Western country denies this - even those that would lift sanctions against Moscow tomorrow. No one doubts that Russia is providing modern weapons to the separatists in east Ukraine. … So why is there this reluctance to support the other side - the victim of increasing aggression from over the border?"

By Jerzy Haszczyński

Translated By Halszka Czarnocka

February 6, 2015

Poland – Rzeczpospolita – Original Article (Polish)

Abstaining from supporting Ukraine through the provision of weapons is becoming increasingly difficult to justify. It is already clear that such reluctance hasn't brought peace any closer. Not only isn’t the war in east Ukraine petering out, it is escalating.

Wishful thinking does no good - the diplomats have been helpless for months. There is no indication that Russian-backed separatists intend to honor the September agreement on the demarcation line signed in Minsk, just as there is no sign that they will shake hands and exchange T-shirts with Ukrainian troops when the fighting ends.

This conflict is going to continue, because the Kremlin hasn't realized its goal: the subjugation of Ukraine. The Kremlin is the aggressor. Russian troops are on the territory of a neighbor and are shooting its soldiers. No Western country denies this - even those that would lift sanctions against Moscow tomorrow. No one doubts that Russia is providing modern weapons to the separatists in east Ukraine.

Posted By Worldmeets.US

So why is there this reluctance to support the other side - the victim of increasing aggression from over the border? It is primarily due to fear of enraging Russia.

Russia is, however, in a permanent state of wrath because of Ukraine, so sending Ukrainians ammunition or sniper rifles will change nothing.

After all, no one (well, after Zbigniew Bujak's column in this newspaper we should say almost no one) intends to engage in an open military conflict with Russia, sending their own troops to the front in Donbass.

Ukraine is not, moreover, under any kind of embargo, so there are no obstacles to selling her weapons. And when one recalls how much Poles supported the Maidan protests which provoked Russia to intervene in Ukraine, we should talk not only about arms sales, but of gifts. Providing weapons, both attractive and quite useful at the front, would be a show of symbolic support for the Ukrainian struggle for sovereignty. Even a single rifle would make a difference. Frankly, we should have done it a long time ago.

It is worth recalling that the Ukrainians are also fighting the Eurasian empire in our defense.

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