The Trump administration is considering sending lethal defensive aid to Ukraine, defense secretary Jim Mattis said during a visit there Thursday.
“On the defensive lethal weapons, we are actively reviewing it,” Mattis said at a press conference with Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko. “I will go back now having seen the current situation and be able to inform the secretary of State and the president in very specific terms what I recommend for the direction ahead.”
Mattis also noted that the administration recently approved an additional $175 million worth of equipment to the country.
For months, the administration has been weighing providing Ukraine with lethal defensive weapons in its years-long fight against Russian-backed separatists in the east.
President Barack Obama signed off on non-lethal aid and training but hesitated to send defensive weapons to Kyiv, in part out of concerns that doing so would provoke Moscow and ramp up the conflict.
Mattis appeared to reject that view Thursday.
“Defensive weapons are not provocative unless you’re an aggressor,” he said. “Clearly, Ukraine is not an aggressor, since it’s their own territory where the fighting is happening.”
The weapons would also be deployed away from the front lines of the fight, according to a Wall Street Journal report that outlines Pentagon and State Department plans for supplying the defensive aid.
Proponents of the defensive aid see it as a way to change Russia president Vladimir Putin’s calculus in eastern Ukraine, where Moscow has been providing separatists with weapons and manpower. Poroshenko said Thursday that there are some 3,000 Russian troops that territory.
“Any defensive weapons would be just to increase the price if Russia makes a decision to attack my troops and my territory,” he said.
Trump has the authority to send lethal defensive aid under the National Defense Authorization Act. Arizona senator John McCain, chairman of the committee that oversees that legislation, urged the president Wednesday to act on the authority granted to him.
“It is long past time for the United States to provide Ukraine the defensive lethal assistance it needs to deter and defend against further Russian aggression,” McCain said. “Providing defensive lethal assistance to Ukraine is not opposed to a peaceful resolution of this conflict—it is essential to achieving it.”
Mattis also condemned Russia for the 2014 annexation of Crimea, and more broadly for not adhering to its commitments under the Minsk ceasefire agreements.
“We do not, and we will not, accept Russia’s seizure of Crimea,” he said. “Despite Russia’s denials, we know they are seeking to redraw international borders by force, undermining the sovereign and free nations of Europe.”
He stressed that the United States is looking to strengthen its relationship with Ukraine.
