Britain Sends New Weapons To Ukraine As U.S., Germany Warn Russia, Urge Diplomacy
According to RFE/RL, U.S. and British officials have pledged support and new weapons to Ukraine as Germany issued further calls for diplomacy and warnings to Moscow amid a troop buildup in western Russia.
British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said on January 17 that Britain was providing Ukraine with new "defensive weapons systems," and announced a fresh diplomatic overture toward Moscow.
"We have taken the decision to supply Ukraine with light anti-armor, defensive weapon systems," Wallace told Parliament.
He added: "They are not strategic weapons and pose no threat to Russia. They are to use in self-defense."
Wallace also said he was inviting Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to London for talks in the coming weeks to help defuse the crisis.
Kyiv and its Western backers say Russia has deployed tens of thousands of troops along the border with Ukraine in recent weeks in what could be preparations for a potential invasion, something Moscow has denied.
A U.S. Congressional delegation that arrived in Kyiv on January 17 to "help deter further Russian aggression," meanwhile, underscored Western resolve in the face of the Russian threat.
"I think [Russian President] Vladimir Putin has made the biggest mistake of his career in underestimating how courageously the people of Ukraine will fight him if he invades," Senator Richard Blumenthal (Democrat-Connecticut) told journalists after the delegation met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
"And we will impose crippling economic sanctions, but more important we will give the people of Ukraine the arms, lethal arms, they need to defend their lives and livelihoods," Blumenthal added.
Earlier on January 17, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told Ukrainians during a visit to Kyiv that diplomacy was "the only way" to resolve the tense standoff between Moscow and the West over Ukraine. She repeated warnings that Russia would pay a "high price" if it launched an attack on its neighbor.
"We will do our all to guarantee Ukraine's security. We will do our all to guarantee Europe's security," Baerbock told a joint press conference in Kyiv with her Ukrainian counterpart, DmytroKuleba.
"Each further aggressive act will have a high price for Russia, economically, strategically, politically," said Baerbock, a day before she is due to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow.
Addressing the press briefing on January 17, Kuleba said Ukraine and Germany were united in pushing to revive four-way talks on putting an end to the fighting in eastern Ukraine in the so-called "Normandy" format, which includes Germany, France, Ukraine, and Russia.
