By holding back Ukraine support, Trump helped Putin
By Evelyn N. Farkas
... Hostilities between Russia and Ukraine began in 2014 with Russia’s lightning-quick occupation of Crimea, the region coveted by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Within hours, Ukrainian service members at various military installations were trapped on their own soil by Russian forces. If they had fought back, almost certainly they would have died. If they didn’t resist, it was unclear at the time how they would fare. My job, as deputy assistant secretary of defense, was to lead a team .. outlining options for the United States to help Ukraine defend itself against further Russian aggression.
The situation was urgent: Viktor Yanukovych, the corrupt, Russia-friendly president of Ukraine that Paul Manafort — Donald Trump’s future campaign chairman and, as of last year, a felon — helped elect, had overseen years of government plunder. His military was under-resourced and gave up without a fight. The Russians seized dominance of the air and sea, took over Crimea and started another war in the Donbas region of Eastern Ukraine that persists today ...
Republicans in Congress were critical of Obama for not providing weaponry. In contrast, President Trump was praised after approving arms sales to Ukraine in 2017, including the Javelin antitank systems mentioned by Ukraine’s current president, Volodymyr Zelensky, in the now-infamous July 25 call with Trump that’s at the heart of the House of Representatives’ current impeachment inquiry. Now, though, Trump is accused of delaying nearly $400 million in military aid at around the same time he encouraged Zelensky to look for compromising information about .. Joe Biden ...
In the context of Ukraine’s ongoing shooting war — and the political war between the United States and Russia — Trump’s alleged actions suggest the president’s contempt for his constitutional duty and his lack of stewardship of American military and diplomatic resources. But they’re also a reminder of his persistent flirtation with prerogatives claimed by Putin, unquestionably a U.S. adversary. Trump’s motivation may have been domestic politics, but the urgent need to defend against Putin’s machinations is what made Ukraine vulnerable to Trump’s apparent push in the first place ...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/09/26/we-aid-ukraine-help-it-fight-russia-by-holding-back-support-trump-helped-putin/
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