House Overwhelmingly Passes Call to Arm Ukraine

Resolution Doesn't Mention Ceasefire

by Jason Ditz,

In an overwhelming 348-48 vote, the House of Representatives passed a resolutioncalling for President Obama to immediately begin providing weaponry to the Ukrainian government.

The resolution claims Russia is plotting to take over eastern Ukraine, and cites Pentagon officials supporting arms shipments to the Ukrainian military. The resolution is non-binding.

The preamble to the resolution includes several factual errors about the Ukrainian conflict, including the bizarre claim that Russia’s annexation of Crimea undermined an international order established after World War 2. At the end of WW2, Crimea was still part of Russia’s Soviet Socialist Republic, and it had been Russian from the early 19th century.

Conspicuously absent in the incredibly wordy resolution is a single mention of the ongoing ceasefire, which has brought Ukraine’s Civil War to a virtual halt in recent weeks. The Obama Administration had sent only non-lethal aid, saying they didn’t want to imperil the ceasefire.

http://news.antiwar.com/2015/03/23/house-overwhelmingly-passes-call-to-arm-ukraine/