Ukraine arms request threatens peace: Commentator

Press TV has conducted an interview with Fred Weir, a journalist and political commentator in Moscow, about Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko requesting weapons from western countries to use them against the pro-Russia militias in the country’s volatile eastern region.

What follows is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Here we have Petro Poroshenko, he is requesting for more defensive weapons. Isn’t that usually a call that he is either receiving it or is going to receive the weapons when such a request comes?

Weir: Well no. This has been in the air for months and months. Hardly a day goes by without Poroshenko asking for arms and western countries are putting up what they call non-lethal military equipment which can include things like radars and artillery sliding devices. They are training the Ukrainian troops but so far they have held back from providing the kind of weapons that Ukraine wants which are mainly like effective anti-tank missiles, things like that.

And at the moment peace is sort of breaking out in eastern Ukraine, the ceasefire is holding marvelously, better than it has in six months and there is new round of diplomacy under way, so it is a particularly bad time for Poroshenko to be raising this again.

I do not think Germany, France and these countries want to escalate the war in Ukraine by providing really modern effective western weapons to the Ukrainian army and even the United States I think is cooling on this idea. He is just repeating himself but right now the new emphasis is on a new push for peace.

Press TV: And do you think that there is a sincere move coming from the US in terms of wanting that or is there other things going on there, you mentioned the US has cooled down but do you think it is temporary?

Weir: Well it depends. It really depends on what goes on and it is a volatile situation I believe, that is what you called it and I think it is clear that the West and Moscow, certainly the European Union and Moscow are on the same page about wanting to get the Minsk Agreements completed and some kind of closure on this but the two forces on the ground, the rebels in Donetsk and Lugansk and the Kiev government have their own ideas. They are as far apart as they ever were, they are both very well armed, both have large armies at their disposal now and a resumption of fighting out of control of the West and Moscow is really a possibility.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk