US Wants All Allies To Lift Restrictions On Defense Lethal Assistance To Ukraine- Pentagon

Fahad Shabbir (@FahadShabbir) Published October 29, 2021 | 04:40 AM

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 29th October, 2021) US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia Laura Cooper said during an interview with the Center for Strategic and International Studies that she would like to see all allies lift their restrictions on providing lethal defense assistance to Ukraine.

"Well the first thing I would mention is that I would like to see all allies lift their restrictions on defensive lethal assistance... I believe that Ukraine should be able to purchase the capabilities it needs to defend itself, so I would like to see that restriction lifted," Cooper said on Thursday.

Cooper noted that the United States has already provided Javelin anti-tank missiles to both, Ukraine and Georgia. The Javelin missile systems are an example of a kind of defense lethal capability that the United States has provided Ukraine and on which a number of allies have placed restrictions, Cooper said.

There are many areas in which the United States and its allies can help Ukraine, but not all of them have to do with providing lethal defense assistance, she added, noting that Washington is currently helping set up Ukraine's veterans affairs program.

Earlier on Thursday, self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic Foreign Minister Natalya Nikonorova said that the Ukrainian forces' recent escalatory activity - including a reported drone strike on an oil depot in Donetsk and the capture of the Staromarievka settlement in Donbas - could provoke full-scale combat activities.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova also said on Thursday that they could not rule out the further degradation of the situation in the region, claiming that Ukrainian security forces are deliberately violating the ceasefire regime.