Obama assure friends security condemned Russian “aggression” in Ukraine.
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Posted on June 4, 2014
Obama assured US diligent help and security to his friends at need of the hour to preserve their sovereignty.
Speaking in Warsaw to mark 25 years since the fall of communism in Poland, he hailed Polish democracy as a beacon for neighboring Ukraine.”How can we allow the dark tactics of the 20th Century to define the 21st?” he said.
Mr Obama met Ukraine President-elect Petro Poroshenko, and pledged support for plans to restore peace to the country.
Mr Obama called Mr Poroshenko a “wise selection” to lead Ukraine, and said the nation could become a vibrant, thriving democracy if the world community stood behind it.
US has pledged additional military help to Ukraine as well as potential training of its law enforcement and military personnel. President Obama’s vows comes as Kiev continues air strikes as a part of its military operation in southeastern Ukraine.
Since March, the White House has approved more than $23 million in security assistance to Ukraine. Now the US is providing additional $5 million aid for “the provision of body armor, night vision goggles and additional communications equipment.”
The White House said other aid for Ukraine has included 300,000 ready-to-eat meals and financing for medical supplies, helmets, hand-held radios and other equipment.
“The United States is absolutely committed to standing behind the Ukrainian people not just in the coming days, weeks, but in the coming years,” Obama said.
Obama said it was critical that other countries also support Poroshenko and Ukraine’s new government, including by training its military and police.
Obama’s statement comes a day after he pledged to invest $1 billion in stepping up the US military presence in Eastern Europe amid the Ukrainian crisis.
US has deployed 600 troops for military drills in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland.
“As allies, we have a solemn duty – a binding treaty obligation – to defend your territorial integrity. And we will,” Obama said, according to Reuters. “Poland will never stand alone. Estonia will never stand alone. Latvia will never stand alone. Lithuania will never stand alone. Romania will never stand alone.”
At a separate meeting in Brussels, NATO has said that as an alliance it will not provide military assistance to Ukraine, although individual member states can do so.
NATO said it would “will finalize a comprehensive package of long-term measures to make Ukraine’s reforms more effective and its armed forces stronger” later this month.
“We agreed that we will continue to reinforce NATO’s collective defense with more air and sea patrols and more exercises and training from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea and the Mediterranean,” NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said.
President Obama has called Poroshenko’s victory in the May 25 election a “wise selection.”
Media agencies
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