The US Department of State has signed off on a $47-million sale of 210 shoulder-fired Javelin anti-tank missiles requested by Ukraine costing $47 million, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced on Thursday.
Javelin Missiles Sale to Ukraine Threaten to Inflate Tensions
The weapons sale will only serve to further escalate an already violent and dangerous conflict, author and political commentator Dan Lazare told Sputnik on Friday.
"Of course, it will not do anything to settle the conflict in the eastern Ukraine," Lazare said. "To the contrary, it will just inflame matters all the more. Not that anyone in Washington seems to care."
Opposition Democrats would raise no objections to the arms sale because they were obsessed with anti-Russian hysteria, still blaming Moscow for their presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s unexpected defeat in the 2016 election, Lazare explained.
"Democrats are so blinded by anti-Russian hatred that they are convinced that Kremlin trolls are under every bed and behind every tree," he said.
"Trump will meanwhile sell US weapons to anyone for whatever purpose, just as long as it means a fat profit for some arms maker," he said.
Trump’s approval of the deal also had to be understood in the context of the general chaos and disintegration engulfing his administration, Lazare suggested. This week, his trusted communications director Hope Hicks resigned and his close confidante and son-in-law Jared Kushner lost his security clearance.
"The administration seems to be falling apart by the hour while the Democrats can't wait until Trump's cabinet invokes the 25th Amendment and declares the president unfit," Lazare said.
The political upheaval in Washington and general disorder within the administration would continue, resulting in a continuing failure to prevent US actions from further escalating superpower tensions with Russia over Ukraine, Lazare warned.
"The chaos will just increase. The lunatics really are in control of the asylum [in Washington]," he said.
Javelin Missiles Won't Change Facts on the Ground in Donbass
Selling the Javelins to Kiev will give some tactical support to Ukrainian forces seeking to suppress the two eastern provinces of the Donbass region, but will not change any fundamental dynamics in the conflict, retired US Army officer and tactician Col. Doug Macgregor said.
"The Javelin system will strengthen the Ukrainian capacity for anti-tank defense, but will not alter the facts on the ground or terminate the violence," he said.
"Only a larger, territorial settlement that addresses Russian, as well as, Ukrainian and East European security interests can do that," he said.
The military conflict in Ukraine has been ongoing since 2014, after residents of Donbass refused to recognize the new Ukrainian government, which had come to power in what they say was a coup.
