Ukraine desperate for U.S. surveillance equipment in standoff with Russia
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The Minsk accords require Ukraine to monitor what is considered a “controlled” 1,200-mile border with Russia and another 250 miles that have no controls, plus a 120-mile stretch along Crimea.
Mr. Herbst said the Obama administration “has been slow to recognize the dangers of Putin’s revanchist politics and timid in supplying Ukraine with assistance it needs.”
But he said that new Pentagon leadership, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford, Joint Chiefs chairman, with Congress, are pushing for a “tougher policy in support of Ukraine.”
“While the administration still refuses to send Ukraine defensive lethal weapons,” he said, “early last year it agreed to send Humvees and in September it sent counterbattery radar for missiles, which are very important for reducing Ukrainian casualties.”