“United States must act with urgency to provide defensive lethal assistance to Ukraine,” McCain said.
McCain pointed that willingness to provide weapons to Kiev was an “overwhelming bipartisan consensus,” and that the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) members will work on a legislation to call for the action again.
“Such defensive weapons could include anti-tank weapons and counter-battery radar systems,” US Senator Jack Reed said.
On Wednesday US Defense Secretary nominee Ashton Carter also said that he supported sending lethal weapons to Kiev.
Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes however announced earlier that supplying weapons was not the way to end the Ukrainian crisis.
The armed conflict in eastern Ukraine began in April 2014, when Kiev-led forces launched a military operation against the region’s mostly Russian-speaking independence supporters who opposed Ukraine’s new post-coup government.
