Despite calls from Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko for Congress to provide lethal weapons to his troops, the decision is ultimately up to President Obama, according to the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
“It’s a presidential decision. We can’t force it, we can only talk about it” and possibly adopt a resolution backing Kiev, Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) told The Hill immediately following Poroshenko’s address to a joint session of Congress on Thursday.
{mosads}The administration, in the face of Russian aggression toward Ukraine, has hit Moscow with multiple rounds of economic sanctions and given roughly $70 million in non-lethal military aid to Kiev, including night-vision goggles, blankets and medical kits.
Poroshenko said that wasn’t enough, even though a tenuous cease-fire continues to hold.
“They need more military equipment both lethal and non-lethal,” he said. “One cannot win a war with blankets.
“I urge America to help us. I urge America to lead the way.”
Levin, who was one of the first senior Democrats to break with the president over Ukraine, described Poroshenko’s address as a “real rousing call to us to be supportive of their dreams.”
Levin repeated his calls for the U.S. to provide Ukraine with arms, including anti-tank weapons.
Levin, who will retire next year, said it was possible lawmakers could take up a Ukraine resolution in a lame-duck session of Congress calling for Obama to step up military assistance to Kiev.
“It’d be very possible we urge and encourage that kind of support and I’d be happy to support that kind of resolution,” he said.
Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) said the administration should respond “immediately” to Poroshenko’s request.
He noted that Ukraine submitted a list of military items it needed months ago and “we haven’t delivered.”
“You saw the reaction today, I don’t think that was just being polite,” according to Portman, who was one of two members from the Senate to monitor Poroshenko’s election earlier this year.
“I think most members of Congress on both sides of the aisle understand the stakes here and what to be more supportive,” he told The Hill.
Poroshenko is due to meet with Obama at the White House Thursday afternoon.