Attempts to argue the refusal to provide weapons to Ukraine do not stand up to criticism.

This writes the former US Ambassador to Ukraine Dzhon Herbst in his article for the Atlantic Council, reports "Voice of America".

According to him, Brendan Doherty's statement in the article "Do not arm Ukraine" that "Ukraine is a deeply divided country" is obsolete and originates in the report of the CIA of the 1990s, which spoke about a possible split in our country.

Regarding Doherty's argument about the hopeless corruption of Ukraine, Herbst notes that this statement is not complete and misleading.

Among the achievements of Ukraine Herbst noted the cleaning of the banking system, procurement reform, the transition to a single market gas price, which helped reduce the budget deficit by 80%.

The statement by the former director of the National Security Council, Charles Kupchan, that the United States is not too interested in Ukraine, runs counter to the words of Pentagon chief Jim Mattis, who noted the growing aggression of the Russian Federation and its plans to change the existing international order. It is for the sake of achieving these goals, Herbst emphasizes, that Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a war with Georgia and Ukraine.

Another error of Doherty and Kupchan, Herbst, calls the argument that the Russian population, like Putin, is "ready to lose the military in combat". In fact, numerous polls have shown that Russians do not want their soldiers to fight in Ukraine.

The former US Ambassador notes that the provision of defensive weapons to Ukraine, especially the anti-tank complexes Javelin, this will mean even greater losses for the Russian Federation in the case of a new wave of large-scale aggression.

Bershidsky says that you do not need to send anti-tank weapons to Ukraine, since the Kremlin has 20,000 tanks and it will always send new.

"The Ukrainians have achieved a stabilization of the line of contact, but losses are occurring daily and since the Minsk agreement, Moscow has taken hundreds of additional square kilometers. The provision of anti-tank weapons will help to guard against Moscow's taking even more, "Herbst emphasizes..

The final argument of opponents of providing weapons to Ukraine is that it "sow discord between the US and the main European allies". However, Herbst said, although Germany and France are opposed, German Chancellor Angela Merkel stated that if the United States gives Ukraine weapons, Berlin will continue to cooperate with Washington over the settlement of the situation in the Donbass.

"The United States has committed itself to guarantee the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine when it gave up its nuclear weapons in 1994. The provision of defensive weapons to Ukraine will occur under this obligation and will increase Moscow's expenses for the war. Over time, this can persuade the Kremlin to withdraw from Donbass. Even if not, it will force Moscow to spend additional resources in Ukraine, and they will think twice before challenging us in the Baltics, where our obligations within NATO will force us to act more decisively, "summed up the former US ambassador.