Ukraine’s Poroshenko says he wants direct U.S. military aid [View all]

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Source: Washington Post

Petro Poroshenko, the newly elected president of Ukraine, inherits a low-grade civil war against separatists backed by Russia, an economy rapidly descending into recession and a fragmented political system in which most power lies with a lame-duck, unrepresentative parliament. But as he sees it, he does have one thing going for him: For the moment, at least, a decisive majority of Ukrainians are behind him.

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If so, it will be a political tailwind that Poroshenko badly needs. As president, the 48-year-old billionaire businessman, who made his fortune manufacturing chocolate, will have direct authority only over defense and foreign affairs. His first challenge will be to rebuild a demoralized and decrepit Ukrainian army on the fly while trying to eliminate the threat posed by the heavily armed mix of militants and Russian agents holding key infrastructure in the provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk.

For that, the new president thinks he will need more help than he has been getting from the United States. “I don’t have the impression that [sanctions] are strong enough — I think more aggression is possible,” he told me, speaking softly and fingering a string of beads after a long post-election day. “And when aggression starts, no sanctions help.”

What would help, Poroshenko says, is direct U.S. military aid. He brought up Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Lend-Lease program during World War II, paraphrasing Roosevelt’s argument as “when your neighbor’s house is burning, you should lend him your hose.”

“Now we should create a new security treaty exactly like Lend-Lease,” he said. “We should cooperate in military technical assistance and in advising assistance. We are ready to fight for independence, and we should build up the armed forces of Ukraine.”

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/jackson-diehl-ukrainian-president-elect-wants-direct-us-military-aid/2014/05/27/20c0be88-e567-11e3-afc6-a1dd9407abcf_story.html