[Peace-discuss] US New Stage of Arms to Kiev Seeks to Balance Conflict, Endangers Minsk Accords - Sputnik International

[Karen Aram]

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> https://sputniknews.com/analysis/201708021056097873-usa-kiev-arms-endanger-minsk-deal/
> UNDERMINING MINSK
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> University of Illinois Professor of International Law Francis Boyle told Sputnik that the consequences of sending such weapons to Ukraine would be highly negative.
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> "Lethal weapons are lethal weapons whether you call them offensive or defensive. In the context of Ukraine the distinction is meaningless," he said.
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> Boyle also warned that such a decision could derail moves by Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin to deescalate the Ukraine crisis.
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> "Obviously [US policymakers] understand that the provision of these lethal weapons could very well sabotage the new Trump-Putin Initiative to resolve the Ukrainian Civil War on the basis Minsk Agreements, which is the only realistic way to resolve it," he noted.
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> The Minsk Agreements remained the essential and irreplaceable legal and diplomatic framework for restoring peace to Ukraine since the existing state had been toppled in a US-backed coup against legal incumbent President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014, Boyle pointed out.
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> "Technically Ukraine disintegrated as a state as a direct result of the CIA-sponsored coup against the democratically elected Yanukovych government. Minsk is the only road map to put the Ukrainian Humpty-Dumpty back together again," he explained
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> According to the newspaper, US officials want to make the weapons delivery continent on them being deployed away from the front line in the war-torn Donbass region in eastern Ukraine.
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