Europe, U.S. clash over how to confront Putin over Ukraine

Differences within the Western alliance over whether to send defensive arms to Ukraine were thrust into the open Saturday when Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, bluntly opposed providing lethal military support to Kiev and called instead for continued efforts to persuade Russia and separatist forces to cease fire.

“The progress that Ukraine needs cannot be achieved by more weapons,” she told a security conference here. Instead, she spoke of how Western values and persistence won the Cold War.

Merkel’s position was challenged by Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who is chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, and by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who noted that there was growing support in the U.S. Congress for arming Ukraine.

Malcolm Rifkind, the former British foreign secretary and Conservative politician, said it was unlikely a peace agreement could be reached unless there was a combination of military assistance and diplomacy, so that the Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine faced tougher Ukrainian resistance.

The pointed exchanges laid bare the divisions within the West’s ranks and did not provide a sense of how the United States and its European allies hoped to fashion a common strategy that might persuade President Vladimir Putin of Russia to honor an agreement negotiated in Minsk, Belarus, in September. The agreement called for a cease-fire and the removal of Russian weapons and forces from eastern Ukraine.

Merkel did not say if she had made any headway in her talks in Moscow on Friday with Putin and the French president, François Hollande, who has also opposed arming the Ukrainians but is eager to fulfill an existing contract to sell warships to Russia if the crisis eases. Europe

Note EU-Digest: If Mr. Putin plays the European card he wins respect and influence in the EU. If he resists and the US gets involved, not only does he lose, but he will set the great advantages Russia has made back for many years but probably also will  get toppled by his own political opponents.

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