A $391 million military assistance package for Ukraine is at the center of the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry, with President Trump protesting that his predecessor sent “pillows and sheets” while he, after briefly delaying the aid, sent lethal weapons.
Trump allegedly told his staff to freeze the funds days before he asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a congratulatory telephone call to investigate Democratic presidential contender and former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who got a lucrative consulting gig in Ukraine soon after President Barack Obama made his father point man on Ukraine policy. The aid was held back for two months before being released last week, and Democrats contend Trump wanted a Biden investigation in exchange for the assistance.
Trump defended his support for Ukraine during a Wednesday meeting with Zelensky on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City.
“Frankly, President Obama was sending you pillows and sheets, and I gave you anti-tank busters. And a lot of people didn’t want to do that. But I did it,” Trump told Zelensky.
The anti-tank busters are Javelin missile systems, which use advanced infrared technology to lock onto targets and destroy them from a distance of 1.6 miles. The Javelin is particularly deadly because it is a “fire and forget” system that allows a soldier to fire a missile and relocate to another position. Unlike other anti-tank weapons, Javelin missiles fire up into the air and strike a target from above, making them more difficult to counter.
Prior to the provision of the Javelins, Ukrainian forces were at a distinct disadvantage facing the tanks fielded by Russian-backed separatist forces in the country’s eastern region.
In addition to Javelins, the Trump administration has sent sniper rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, and various other pieces of military equipment.
The United States provides around 90% of Ukraine’s military aid and has committed more than $1.5 billion in help to Ukraine since 2014, when Russia invaded eastern Ukraine and annexed Crimea. The key difference in recent years has been lethal aid, which the Obama administration refused to provide — a decision that frustrated both Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill.
“We have an effective form of cooperation, but not with lethal weapons, with the United States, Canada, U.K.,” Ukraine’s last president, Petro Poroshenko, told the New York Times in 2015. “We are very satisfied with the current level of cooperation but we would be happy if the level of this cooperation would be increased.”
The Obama administration did send defensive military aid, such as reconnaissance drones, communications equipment, night-vision goggles, body armor, medicine, ambulances, armored and unarmored Humvees. Obama also committed more than $200 million in 2016 to help Ukraine fight corruption and improve its energy security.
Many Democrats in the Obama years opposed the president’s refusal to send lethal aid to Ukraine, including New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez, Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, and California Rep. Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee who grilled Trump’s acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire Thursday on a whistleblower complaint about Trump’s telephone call.
