The Washington Times
reports that Defense Department advisers will be in Ukraine
“within the next few weeks,” teaching the Kiev government how to
rebuild and improve its military defense structure to better combat
Russian-backed militias destabilizing the nation.
Army Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, told the
Times that the goal is to “shape and establish an enduring
program for future U.S. efforts to support the Ukrainian
military through subject-matter expert teams and long-term
advisers.”
According to a Daily Beast exclusive today, the
Ukrainian government “quietly asked the United States and NATO for
sensitive equipment to jam the radars that Russian anti-aircraft
systems use to lock their missiles on planes,” a request that
hasn’t been met in part because the U.S. believes Ukraine’s
military is “thoroughly penetrated by Russian
intelligence.”
Although Ukraine has successfully pushed back some of the
so-called separatists, these pro-Russian forces still occupy
Donetsk and Luhansk, two major cities in the east, and continue to
get their hands on more powerful military equipment.
Today, the Ukrainian government claims that the insurgents shot
down two Su-25s fighter jets – and that the rockets were launched
from Russian territory.
“They were shot down very professionally. The terrorists do not
have such professionals,” Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for the
Ukrainian Security Council said. The separatists have so far shot
down
over a dozen Ukrainian military planes.
Reuters
reports that it was part of “fierce fighting [that] raged on
Wednesday near the rebels’ two main centers.”
Yesterday evening the U.S. government also commented on the
shooting-down of a Malaysia Airline passenger plane over Ukrainian
skies that resulted in the death of nearly 300 civilians from
around the world. The Associated Press
reports:
Senior U.S. intelligence officials said Tuesday that Russia was
responsible for “creating the conditions” that led to the shooting
down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, but they offered no evidence
of direct Russian government involvement. …The plane was likely shot down by an SA-11 surface-to-air
missile fired by Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, the
intelligence officials said, citing intercepts, satellite photos
and social media postings by separatists, some of which have been
authenticated by U.S. experts.
“The Red Cross has made a confidential legal
assessment that Ukraine is officially in a war, Western
diplomats and officials say, opening the door
to possible war crimes prosecutions, including over
the downing of Malaysia Airlines MH-17,” another Reuters
article
notes.
For more Reason coverage of Ukraine, click here.
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