WASHINGTON: The United States will provide $46 million in new security assistance to Ukraine’s military but stop short of fulfilling an urgent request from Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko for lethal aid to help his country fight Russian-backed separatists.

Poroshenko pleaded his case during remarks on Thursday to a rare joint meeting of Congress. While he thanked the US for the non-lethal equipment it is providing his country’s beleaguered military, he said more was needed to stop provocations near the Russian border.

“Blankets and night vision goggles are important, but one cannot win a war with a blanket,” he said during a 40-minute address that was repeatedly interrupted by applause from lawmakers.

Hours later, Poroshenko arrived at the White House for discussions with President Barack Obama, a meeting meant to send a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the West’s support for Ukraine.

“The picture of President Poroshenko sitting in the Oval Office will be worth at least a thousand words — both in English and Russian,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.

Ukraine and Kremlin-backed separatists have been locked in a months-long fight for control of eastern Ukrainian cities that sit on Russia’s border, aggression that followed Russia’s annexation of the strategically important Crimean Peninsula. Ahead of Thursday’s White House meeting, US officials said Obama would announce a security assistance packages that will provide Ukrainian forces with counter-mortar radar to help detect incoming artillery fire.

The US also will provide vehicles and patrol boats, body armour and heavy engineering equipment. Despite some support for Poroshenko’s request within the Obama administration, officials said the president continues to oppose lethal assistance and does not envision directly arming the Ukrainian military as an effective way to end the conflict.Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have also pressed Obama to ramp up military aid to Ukraine.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee was expected to vote on Thursday afternoon on bipartisan legislation that would increase military and non-military assistance, as well as impose broad sanctions on Russia’s defence, energy and financial sectors.

“President Putin has upended the international order, and a slap on the wrist will not deter future Russian provocations,” the committee’s chairman, Sen. Robert Menendez, a Democrat, said.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2014