Ukraine is set to buy what it calls “defensive weapons” from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as Western nations have been hesitant to provide arms to aid Kiev’s forces against separatists.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced on Tuesday that a deal on military and technical cooperation with the UAE had been reached during his visit to the International Defence Exhibition and Conference (IDEX-2015 Arms Expo) held in Abu Dhabi.
Agreements reached in UAE will strengthen Ukraine’s defense capacities. #IDEX2015 #UnitedForUkraine #UAE pic.twitter.com/CFhZv6HLFu
— Петро Порошенко (@poroshenko) February 24, 2015
Poroshenko told reporters that he had signed a “very important memorandum about military and technical cooperation” with his UAE counterparts, without providing any further details on what the agreement will entail. The deal was struck between Ukrainian officials and UAE Crown Prince and Armed Forces Deputy Supreme Commander Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan.
На жаль, сьогодні у світі знижується рівень безпеки, тому зростає популярність IDEX. pic.twitter.com/YrzyhEeyB8 — Петро Порошенко (@poroshenko) February 24, 2015
Ukrainian Interior Minister Anton Gerashchenko later posted on his Facebook account: “It’s worth emphasizing that unlike Europeans and Americans, the Arabs aren’t afraid of Putin’s threats of a third world war starting in case of arms and ammunition supplies to Ukraine,” both Sputnik and RT report.
Gerashchenko said that he believed the UAE blamed Russia for the fall in oil prices: “So, this is going to be their little revenge.”
Gerashchenko said that the types of weapons and the volume of the supplies that are to be delivered from the UAE could not be disclosed.
Former U.S. diplomat James Jatras told RT that the UAE’s decision to agree to supply weapons to Ukraine may be part of a U.S. covert operation.
“This discussion in Washington about supplying weapons has been going on for some time. Usually that indicates that some kind of a covert program is already in operation and that we already are supplying some weapons directly,” Jatras told RT, adding that it is hard to believe that UAE would sell these weapons to Ukraine “without a green light from Washington.”
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