Vapenhjälp till Ukraina

      In the Jan. 25 State of the Union statement, President Obama said that the separatists in Ukraine who broke a cease fire had “Russian backing, Russian equipment, Russian financing, Russian training and Russian troops,” and that he will “look at all additional options that are available to us short of military confrontation and try to address this issue.”
      The president’s statement was followed by a major increase in Russian aggression against Ukraine. As Donald Tusk—the former prime minister of Poland and current president of the European Union— tweeted after the Mariupol attack: “Once again, appeasement encourages the aggressor to greater acts of violence. Time to step up our policy based on cold facts, not illusions.”
Rejecting Ukrainian requests for antitank and antiaircraft weapons and other defensive systems has abandoned Ukrainians in their time of greatest need.

NATO and the U.S. need to release more evidence about the Russian forces who are inside Ukraine and attacking it from outside. The U.S. has satellites and other means to expose Russia’s invasion—and it needs to declassify and release this proof.

Gazprom, the Russian energy company, and its head, Alexei Miller, should be added to the sanctions list. Listing Gazprom would end its ability to strike new deals with Turkey and other countries.

Russia should be excluded from the global system to process payments—known as Swift. This would cripple Russian banking and finance.

Russian officials at the highest levels should be added to the Western visa ban and asset-freeze lists. This should start with Mr. Putin, who has a fortune in the tens of billions, according to a New York Times report in April last year citing officials who had seen a secret CIA assessment in 2007 of the Russian leader’s wealth. Mr. Putin needs to be treated like the pariah he is. Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, should be included; there is no value to engaging with him because nothing he says is true nor has he any influence with Mr. Putin’s inner circle. Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu should also be added, since many of Russia’s forces in Ukraine fall under his command.
Här finns mer för den vetgirige.