Time To Arm Ukraine With Defensive Weapons

Aggression: As Russian-backed separatist rebels continue their advance, it's becoming clear even to administration officials that Ukraine needs more help than first-aid kits and K-rations.

Pro-Russia separatists roll through the Lugansk region 
of eastern Ukraine with the Russian flag flying

A report issued Monday by eight former senior American officials urges the Obama administration to send — and send quickly — some $3 billion in defensive military equipment as it becomes increasingly evident that the effects of sanctions the president says have hurt Russia have not been apparent on the ground in Ukraine.

Former top NATO military commander James 
Stavridis

Among the officials advocating the move, the New York Times reports, is former senior Pentagon official Michele Flournoy, once on the short list to replace outgoing Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and a possible defense secretary candidate if Hillary Clinton wins in 2016.

Joining her in the report were former top NATO military commander James Stavridis and Ivo Daalder, who served as our NATO ambassador during Obama's first term.

Pro-Russia rebels operate tanks in Ukraine's Donestk 
region

NATO reports that Russian-backed separatists have captured nearly 200 more square miles of territory in the last four months as Russia repeatedly violates an agreement reached in Minsk last September. The agreement called for a cease-fire, the removal of foreign forces and monitoring arrangements to ensure that the Ukrainian border is not violated.

But violated it has been, as the Russia of Vladimir Putin has supplied T-80 and T-72 tanks, armored personnel carriers, artillery and multiple-launch rocket systems, all to support the separatists' military offensive in eastern Ukraine. NATO officials believe that as many as a thousand Russian advisers are helping the separatists use and operate the sophisticated weaponry that Moscow is providing.

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