“Right now, again, we continue to have discussions with Ukraine as they are talking to our government about their requirements,” Martin, who is responsible for facilitating the final sale of Air Force military equipment to foreign governments, told RIA Novosti on Wednesday at the ComDef 2014 conference.
Asked whether any of those sales had come through, Martin said “no. Not yet.”
Within the recent months, President Obama has come under pressure from Republicans in Congress to step up pressure on Russia by providing lethal support to Ukraine.
- In recent days, members of his own party have begun urging him to reconsider providing military aid to the government in Kiev. Senator Robert Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee are among the Democrats who have been calling for military aid.
Martin told RIA Novosti that his agency is responsible for foreign military sales.
“We would be the ones they turned to and say execute it when it would come to military aid,” Martin said.
However, he repeated that from his position, those orders have not yet come through his agency. “We have a cordial relationship with the Ukraine government; we continue to have discussions with them,” he added.......................http://en.ria.ru/world/20140903/192610467/US-Military-Aid-to-Ukraine-Has-Not-Been-Initiated-Yet.html
3/9/14
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Kiev: Poroshenko Announces Permanent Ceasefire in East Ukraine After Conversation With Putin
Obama Arrives in Estonia to Reassure Baltic States (VOA News)
- Ukraine PM rejects Putin ceasefire plan as bid to deceive West.
KIEV: Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk on Wednesday (Sep 3) rejected a ceasefire plan unveiled by Russian President Vladimir Putin as an attempt to deceive the West about Moscow's real intentions. "This latest plan is another attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of the international community ahead of the NATO summit and an attempt to avert the EU's inevitable decision to unleash a new wave of sanctions against Russia," he said in a statement. "The best plan for ending Russia's war against Ukraine has only one single element - for Russia to withdraw its troops, its mercenaries and its terrorists from Ukrainian territory."
His comments come despite Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko saying he and Putin had agreed on the peace plan aimed at ending the near five-month conflict in eastern Ukraine. The proposal, detailed by Putin on the eve of the NATO summit in Wales opening on Thursday, is due to be discussed on Friday by the so-called Ukraine Contact Group, which includes representatives of Kiev, separatist rebels, Moscow and the pan-european security body the OSCE. NATO is planning a rapid reaction force of thousands of troops to reinforce its eastern flank, a move Russia says is evidence of the alliance's desire to aggravate tensions with Moscow.
- AFP/de
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/ukraine-pm-rejects-putin/1345070.html
3-4/9/14
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Ban Ki-moon Welcomes Putin and Poroshenko Talks on Peaceful Resolution...
ReplyDeleteUNITED NATIONS, September 3 - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday welcomed “the news of today's contact between President Poroshenko and President Putin regarding a step by step plan toward peaceful resolution of the conflict,” his spokesman said.
“The Secretary General stresses that such a plan can only succeed if all sides display good will and take concrete steps toward implementation, including in the upcoming consultations between the Trilateral Group and armed groups which we understand will take place in Minsk on September 5,” Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
Ban Ki-moon acknowledged that “the full details of the plan are not yet known.”...............http://en.ria.ru/world/20140904/192610892/Ban-Ki-moon-Welcomes-Putin-and-Poroshenko-Talks-on-Peaceful-Resolution.html