Washington considers the option to send Ukraine more supplies of the lethal weaponry. Kurt Volker, the US Special Envoy in this country told this to the press during his visit in Kyiv and negotiations with Ukrainian leader Petro Poroshenko. RFE/RL wrote this in a story while addressing the issue.
'In recent months, Russia has stepped up naval operations in the shared Sea of Azov, where, Volker said, “Ukrainians have virtually no naval capability or limited capability, so [the Russians] feel they can assert dominance there.” Ukraine’s lack of robust naval and air-defense capabilities is a weakness Volker said Washington looks set on addressing. “I think that’s going to be the focus as we develop the next steps in our defense cooperation,” he added', RFE/RL wrote.
As is known, on Friday, President Petro Poroshenko held the meeting with Volker. According to the message on the presidential website, the parties discussed the situation in Donbas during the meeting. The sides noted the importance of the continuation of the sanctions policy against Russia until the complete de-occupation of the Ukrainian territory. Poroshenko thanked the U.S. official for the strengthening of the defense capacity of the Ukrainian Army and noted the importance of the continuation of the close cooperation in the area of security and defense. The parties also discussed the issues of energy security, particularly in the context of Nord Stream 2.
Earlier, Volker claimed that elections announced by the self-proclaimed so-called “republics of Luhansk and Donetsk” are illegal. According to Volker, the “elections” on the occupied Donbas territories breach the logic of the Minsk agreements. At the same time, the occupied territories do not have the basic security conditions.