US weapons for Ukraine?
According to media reports the US government has agreed to deliver weapons to Ukraine to help the country defend its sovereignty. International observers fear the move could escalate the conflict with Moscow. Ukrainian media take a different view.
Russia may be scared now
The US weapon systems can bring peace to Ukraine, military expert Ihor Romanenko writes in a commentary for the Ukrainian news agency Unian:
“It will have a distinctly moderating effect when Russia realises that Ukraine will be more effectively armed from now on. Because the use of these weapons would mean unacceptable losses for Russia. Moscow will also have to take into account the fact that the Ukrainian army's potential has significantly increased. So military operations like those in Crimea or during the first days of the war in Donbass won't be so easy anymore.”
US weapons are Ukraine's only hope
Ukraine's key task in 2018 is to hold its own, above all with Western military support, author Yurii Andrukhovych writes in the weekly paper Dzerkalo Tyzhnia:
“What miracles do I hope for in 2018? If I say it's that the Russian army will withdraw from our territory I'll only be kidding myself. I'm afraid that in 2018 the time will not yet be ripe for such a miracle. For the same reason I have no hope that Putin will be defeated in the presidential elections. ... No: the miracles I'm hoping for are much more modest. For example heavy anti-tank artillery from the US.”