U.S. to sell anti-tank missiles to Ukraine

People walk past the tanks of pro-Russian separatist forces during a rehearsal of Victory Day parade in the center of Donetsk on May 3, 2017.
(Image credit: Alexey Filippov/Getty Images)

The United States will sell anti-tank missiles and other weapons to Ukraine, the State Department announced Friday, a change from past practice of providing only military training while permitting small arms sales.

The new arrangement is intended to give Ukraine "enhanced defensive capabilities," a State representative said, because "Ukraine is a sovereign country and has a right to defend itself." The Ukrainian government has been battling Russian-supported separatists following Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, and Friday's news is seen as an escalation of U.S.-Russia tensions.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.