March 26, 2015

MPs warn U.S. not to arm Ukraine

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MOSCOW – Pro-Kremlin lawmakers say the Russian Parliament should reinstate President Vladimir Putin’s formal authority to send troops into Ukraine if the United States provides Kyiv with lethal weapons. The lawmakers spoke on March 24, a day after the U.S. House of Representatives approved a resolution urging President Barack Obama to provide Ukraine with lethal weapons to defend itself against Russian aggression. Just Russia party lawmaker Mikhail Yemelyanov told the State Duma that if the “the United States actually starts to deliver lethal weapons to Ukraine we should openly back militias… with weapons, and reinstate the president’s right to send troops to Ukrainian territory.” Frants Klintsevich, a ruling United Russia party lawmaker, said U.S. supplies of lethal weapons would “in a second” destroy the fragile ceasefire deal now in place. The Duma gave Mr. Putin the formal authority to send troops to Ukraine in March 2014 , a move that sent a warning signal to the West following the ouster of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. The authority was later withdrawn. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by Interfax, TASS and Agence-France-Presse)

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