Poroshenko: US may make decision to supply defensive weapons to Ukraine before October
In an interview with the TV channels Ukraine, ICTV and Inter, President Petro Poroshenko said that the US would try to resolve the issue of supplying defensive weapons to Ukraine before October.
"As for the defense agreements: we have a virtually agreed-on their text. We are waiting for a visit by the US Secretary of Defense [James Mattis] to Ukraine in two or three months, and hope that the agreements will be signed during this visit. But I emphasize that this will not stop the supply of defensive weapons to Ukraine; this process is very, very active.”
“Moreover, during a meeting with the Defense Department, there was a position that a resolution regarding the supply of defense weapons would be attempted once more during this budget year, [so] by October. So there is no skepticism. These are clear and concrete agreements, unprecedented, which Ukraine has never had in our relations with the US," Poroshenko said.
In 2014, the US decided not to provide Ukraine with lethal weapons, because the White House believed that they could "spur" Russia to escalate the conflict. In the summer of 2016, Valeriy Chaly supposed that the issue could be reconsidered after the US Presidential Elections.
In early 2017, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, then still President Donald Trump's candidate for the post, said that America needed to support Ukraine and provide it with lethal defensive weapons.