Interfax-Ukraine
December 13, 2014
US evaluating options of how best to support Ukraine – Department of State
The US authorities are concerned over the ongoing situation in Ukraine and evaluate the options of assistance to the country, U.S. Department of State Spokesperson Jennifer Psaki has reported.
“The situation, of course, remains fluid and we remain very concerned about the situation on the ground, and we continue to assess how best to support Ukraine,” she said at a daily briefing on Friday.
“Well, our position and our policy position has not changed. Our focus from the outset of this crisis has been on supporting Ukraine and on pursuing a diplomatic solution that respects Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” she stressed.
According to Psaki, the US is working closely with its allies and partners in Europe and around the world to help accomplish this aim.
She stressed that the United States provides a range of assistance to Ukraine, including $118 million in security assistance, everything from body armor, helmets, vehicles, night and thermal vision devices, heavy engineering equipment, advanced radios, demining equipment, portable explosive ordnance disposal robots, patrol boats, counter mortar radars. And this assistance also includes advising and training.
Besides, according to Psaki, “confrontational is a better way to use the term to describe the fact that there are continued aggressive actions and movement of humanitarian convoys and armed separatists moving around Ukraine, which is a sovereign country, rather than to characterize so the US Senate-adopted “Ukraine Freedom Support Act of 2014″.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said that Moscow is indignant at US threats to impose new sanctions.
Previously, the U.S. Senate approved a bill “Ukraine Freedom Support Act of 2014″ that allows the U.S. administration to introduce new sanctions against Russian state-owned companies, including Gazprom and Rosoboronexport, as well as to provide military assistance to Ukraine.
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