KYIV – Even as news stories more and more frequently reported that the Obama administration was considering lethal aid to Ukraine, The Washington Post’s Carol Morello reported on February 5 that Secretary of State John F. Kerry had arrived in Kyiv, “bearing a modest package of humanitarian aid but stopping short of offering the expanded military assistance sought by Ukraine.”
She also noted: “Kerry announced on his arrival that the United States would provide an additional $16 million in humanitarian aid to buy blankets, repair homes, obtain wheelchairs and provide counseling for the victims of ongoing war in Ukraine. There was no mention of defensive military equipment.”
Mr. Kerry met with President Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk. In a joint appearance with Mr. Poroshenko after their meeting, the secretary of state reiterated that the U.S. wants “a peaceful resolution” to the conflict in Ukraine.
According to a transcript released by the U.S. State Department, he added: “But we cannot close our eyes to tanks that are crossing the border from Russia and coming into Ukraine. We can’t close our eyes to Russian fighters in unmarked uniforms crossing the border and leading individual companies of so-called separatists in battle. We can’t close our eyes to modern rockets and modern radar capacity and other capacity that has crossed the border in order to prosecute this conflict across sovereign lines, across international borders, against all the promises that were made in the Minsk ceasefire agreement.”