Ukraine’s minister of defense has criticized the United States for not helping his country defend itself.
On Friday, Denys Yuriyenko, the minister, said his country needed more support after a visit to Washington. He said that, although U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington would provide Ukraine with sophisticated weapons, the U.S. had fallen short of what he says is needed. “We believe that the USA should not stop providing some support to us, but do much more, including providing lethal weapons,” Yuriyenko told reporters in Washington.
Yuriyenko also criticized the United States for not sanctioning Russian companies implicated in the conflict in eastern Ukraine. He said that more than a year after the United States sanctioned Kremlin-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, Moscow’s “armament monopoly” in the country remained in place. “We see no evidence of any political, financial, or economic actions on the U.S. side with regard to the entities involved in supplying lethal and non-lethal weapons, training, and occupying the territory of Ukraine,” he said.
Separatist forces are subject to economic sanctions, but not the Russian entities that supply them with weapons.