U.S. considering provision of lethal weapons to Ukraine

14:01, 24.08.2017 1 min read

Washington is considering a possibility of supplying lethal weapons to Ukraine, United States Secretary of Defense James Mattis said after talks with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in Kyiv on Thursday.

Mattis said that upon return to the U.S., he, acting on the basis of what he has seen and learnt, would inform the U.S. leadership of specific things and would recommend that they be put into practice.

Defense weapons themselves cannot provoke anyone, except for the aggressor, but Ukraine is not the aggressor and is fighting in its own territory, the secretary of defense said.

Poroshenko, for his part, said that "first and foremost there is a high degree of responsibility when we have defense capabilities, including within cooperation with the U.S."

"Debate on supplies of defensive weapons to Ukraine would only raise the price [of aggression] if Russia decided to attack my territory and my forces. It would be a powerful motivation to cease these irresponsible steps," Poroshenko said.