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When they have command of their senses, U.S. policymakers tend to think better of involving our nation deeply in Ukraine. So this weeks calls from lawmakers and policy wonks to arm Ukraine are a sign that the Trump and Russia scandals have concussed our political class.

Sending weapons to Kiev makes no more sense today than it did two years ago. You may recall the last time arming Ukraine was floated. In 2015, fearing a Western-backed putsch would permanently pull the country from Russias sphere of influence, Vladimir Putin took a gamble to preserve the Kremlins access to the Black Sea Fleet and annexed Crimea. Contrary to popular perception, this was not a demonstration of Kremlin strength, but a last resort. A truly strong Russia would have been able to keep Kiev under its influence and preserve its access to the Black Sea without force. In fact, in 2010 Putin used his popularity in Ukraine and Russias diplomatic might to help his preferred candidate, the fantastically corrupt grifter, Viktor Yanukovych, over the line in presidential elections.

Ukraine is a deeply divided country. Its most-recent presidential elections revealed astark conflict between the agrarian, Ukrainian-speaking north and west on one hand and the Russian-speaking south and east on the other. It is also not a particularly admirable state. Successive governments in Kiev have turned out to be ineffective and/or hopelessly corrupt. Even the Western-supported Viktor Yushchenko arguably usurped the role of Ukraines courts when dissolving Parliament in 2007. This is not a stable democracy.

It isalso a country many Russians see as deeply woven into their own history. Anti-Communist dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn summed up some of the Russian attitude toward Ukraine when he wrote in 1990 that, All talk of a separate Ukrainian people existing since something like the ninth century and possessing its own non-Russian language is a recently-invented falsehood.

Poland ceded Kiev to Peter the Great in the 1690s. Needless to say, Russia has a much longer history with Ukraine than the United States can claim. Ukrainian membership in NATO periodically comes up, but Ukraine would be one of the most difficult countries for NATO to defend, while contributing little to the alliance, partly because its government is so indebted to the Russian state.

Yes, Putins government continues to foment pro-Russian unrest and separatism in the Donetsk region. But giving Ukraine some anti-tank weaponry would not meaningfully deter Moscows aggression. Russia is a massive land power, with over 20,000 tanks. The Russian state and the Russian public have both proven willing to lose troops in battle over the last two decades of vicious wars in Chechnya. Russia has many economic levers of influence over Ukraine, ones that the West could not help to match without now-unthinkable commitments of political will and ready cash. And sending arms to Kiev would play right into Putins narrative of Western meddling, which has been hugely effective in swaying its target audience: Russian-speaking Ukrainians see the U.S. as complicit in overturning a democratic result in 2015, even if their defense of the result is that they cheated to get it fair and square.

Ultimately, Ukraine is of peripheral interest to the United States and Western Europe even if annoying Russia has incredible appeal right now. Giving it arms, or extending to it a kind of quasi-membership in NATO might irritate Russia, but it would also create a new dependent for the U.S. And it could embolden Ukrainian nationalists to do something foolish, the way that Mikhail Sakashvilli jeopardized Georgia in 2007 by acting provocatively once he thought he had the backing of the West.

Punishing Russia is obviously at the top of our leaders minds. But arming Ukraine would mean escalating tensions precisely where American commitments can do the least good and are not at all credible. There are better ways to get Vladimir Putins goat. We should consider them, instead.

READ MORE: Trump and Putins Art of the Ukrainian Deal Ukraines Independence Is Under Threat Trump and Russia

Michael Brendan Dougherty is a senior writer at National Review.

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Don't Arm Ukraine - National Review

The U.S. government has reportedly sought to send Javelin antitank missiles to Ukraine.But its an idea two years too late for todays battlefield, an expert on the conflict said.

As tensions mount overthe order by Russian President Vladimir Putin to expel U.S. diplomatic and technical stafffrom Russia, Defense Department and State Department officials have pushedto arm Ukrainian troops with lethal aid to counter Russian-backed separatists fighting for the self-proclaimed Donetsk Peoples Republic and Luhansk Peoples Republic.

But it remains unclear what, if anything, the delivery of an unknown number of Javelins could do to alter a battle that has mostly been relegated to artillery bombardment and nighttime skirmishes in no mans land.

This idea doesnt flow from a policy or strategy and may point to a political decision rather than military necessity, said Michael Kofman, an expert on the Ukrainian conflict and a senior fellow at the Wilson Center, a Washington think tank.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the Pentagon and State Department are looking to the White House to authorize the delivery of Javelin antitank missiles and other lethal aid to Ukrainian allies,a new wrinkle in a conflict that the United Nations has said cost about 10,000 lives since 2014.

The State Department told The Washington Post that it has not provided Ukraine with what it calls defensive weapons, a characterization not typically assigned to antitank missiles like the Javelin, but it has not ruled out the option to do so.

We are examining how to best use our security assistance going forward to bolster Ukraines ability to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity, a senior State Department official said.

Army Lt. Col. Michelle Baldanza, a Pentagon spokeswoman, offered a similar statement.

The Journal reported officials in Kiev are confident the weapons would be used in emergency defensive situations away from the front.

[On Ukraines front lines, U.S.-supplied equipment is falling apart]

A delivery of weapons, which the Journal said could also include antiaircraft weapons, aligns with Pentagon plans earmarked in the 2018 defense budgetto deliver half a billion dollars of equipment to Ukrainian troops, itself an escalation over the mostly nonlethal aid, such asHumvees, night vision goggles and surveillance drones, it has sent in previous years.

U.S. soldiers have trained alongside Ukrainian counterparts since the conflict began.

The Javelin is a shoulder-fired antitank guided missile system that uses infrared to lock on and track its targets at an effective range of just under three miles. At about 50 pounds, the warhead is light enough for a soldier to carry.It canacquire a target after parsing heat signatures by as little as a few degrees.

The Javelin fires a missileat a steep angle to rain down on top of a target, which is especially valuable when targeting tanks, Kofman said, due to relatively thinner armor at the top of the vehicles.

But tank skirmishes are relatively rare and have been since the height of fighting in 2015, Kofman told The Post. Tanks provided to separatists by Russia are now typically used as mobile artillery, far from where Ukrainian troops could feasibly infiltrate and target with Javelins, Kofman said, though they can also be used against other vehicles and fortified positions.

There is also another befuddling issue the cost, he said. There are a host of antitank weapons already in Ukraine, like the locally made Stugna-P laser guided missile launcher, or the 9M119 Refleks.

Those are acquired at a lower cost than the Javelin, Kofman said, which had a unit cost of $246,000as late as 2015.

[U.S. shifting forces to monitor large Russian military exercises, officials say]

The high cost and doubtful utility on the current battlefield suggest the Javelin procurement is about sending a message of strong deterrence from Washington.

The Ukrainians want the U.S. to provide them with a weapon as a meaningful signal in Kiev and the Kremlin, he said.

Otherwise, Kofman said, there are other urgent priorities such as encrypted communications systems and surveillance drones which would shore up the U.S.-provided aid already in the hands of Ukrainian troops, but is less advanced than the equipment used by Russian-backed separatists.

Russia has emphatically denied it lends support to the separatists.

The Russians provide equipment, some of their most modern equipment, and they provide proxy forces with advisers, said Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, the top U.S. and NATO military commander, according to the Journal.

Russias response to scattering Javelins among Ukrainian ground forces should factor into the decision, Kofman said.

The Russians have a very clear policy of reciprocity, as we saw in the recent diplomatic purge. They see this as a premise of the U.S. wanting to kill Russians, Kofman said.

The answer to this wont come in Ukraine.

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Read more:
US reportedly mulls sending antitank missiles to Ukraine. It may be two years too late. - Washington Post

Ukrainian prosecutors have begun legal proceedings against the German techno band Scooter, and it faces significant legal consequences for performing at a festival in Crimea on August 4, the Ukrainian ambassador to Germany said.

Ukrainian envoy Andriy Melnyk said on Facebook and in an interview with the Funke Mediengruppe newspaper chain that the band's decision to enter Crimea, which Russia annexed illegally in 2014, was "not only a scandal, but also a crime with serious legal consequences."

The band appeared at the ZBFest rock festival in Balaklava.

"This isn't some minor infraction, but a serious crime that will be punished," Melnyk told the newspaper chain.

Ukrainian prosecutors said the band's members were warned against going to Crimea and could face up to eight years in prison.

"Such illegal actions committed by foreign citizens and world celebrities, who can...influence the opinion of their fans, impede Ukraine's efforts towards restoring its territorial integrity," the prosecutor's office said.

Scooter front man H.P. Baxxte said last month the band was going to Crimea to perform music for its fans there, not to engage in politics.

No comment was immediately available from the band on the prosecutor's charges.

See the article here:
Ukraine Taking Legal Action Against German Band Over Crimea Concert - RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty

A Russian flag flies near Pro-Russia militants sitting atop a 2S1 Gvozdika (122-mm self-propelled howitzer) as a convoy of pro-Russian forces takes a break as they move from the frontline near the eastern Ukrainian city of Starobeshevo on February 25, 2015 in the Donetsk region. Vasily Maximov / AFP/Getty Images file

A Pentagon spokesperson would not confirm the details of the package, saying only, "we haven't ruled anything out."

"I can certainly say that we have not provided defensive weapons nor have we ruled out the option to do so," said State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert during a briefing Thursday.

Related:

Still undecided, said the three officials, is whether the U.S. would provide the Javelins through an intermediary and whether U.S. service members would train the Ukrainian military on how to operate them.

The most common Russian tank is the T-90, according to Loren Thompson, chief operating officer of the Lexington Institute, a conservative think tank. The Javelin attacks tanks from above, one of the most vulnerable spots of the tank, he explained, adding that other shoulder-fired weapons like an RPG could not take out a Russian tank.

Fighting intensifies in Ukraine: 9 killed, dozens injured 0:33

Thompson warned that providing lethal weapons to Ukraine a country "on Russia's doorstep" is not

Former Acting CIA Director

Related:

Ukrainian marines prepare to train in urban warfare techniques on the second day of the 'Rapid Trident' bilateral military exercises between the United States and Ukraine that include troops from a variety of NATO and non-NATO countries on September 16, 2014 near Yavorov, Ukraine. file Sean Gallup / Getty Images file

"The U.S. should portray this as an enhancement of Ukrainian defensive capabilities, and part of the deal with Kiev should be that they not use the Javelins to provoke fighting but instead hold onto them for a contingency in which Russia actually uses armor to extend its invasion which it has not been doing lately."

Excerpt from:
Pentagon Asks White House to Give Lethal Weapons to Ukraine - NBCNews.com

BERLIN (Reuters) - German techno band Scooter faces significant legal consequences for performing at a festival in the Crimea region of Ukraine that was annexed by Russia in 2014, the Ukrainian ambassador to Germany said an interview published Saturday.

Andrij Melnyk, Ukraine's envoy to Germany, told the Funke Mediengruppe newspaper chain that the band's decision to enter the Crimea region "illegally" on Thursday was "not only a scandal, but also a crime with serious legal consequences."

Melnyk said Ukrainian prosecutors had already begun legal proceedings against the band.

"This isn't some minor infraction, but a serious crime that will be punished," he told the newspaper group.

The band was due to appear at the ZBFest rock festival in Balaklava on Friday.

Scooter front man H.P. Baxxter told German media last month the band was going to Crimea to perform music, not engage in politics.

No comment was immediately available from the band.

Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by James Dalgleish

See the article here:
German techno band faces charges for Crimea concert: Ukraine envoy - Reuters