Kerry has brought with him an offer of $16.4 million in humanitarian aid, according to US officials. But the possibility is high of arms supplies being part of the Kerry and Poroshenko meeting agenda, as it’s something the Ukrainian president has been vigorously calling for.
Great to see Amb @GeoffPyatt. Whole @USEmbassyKyiv team doing terrific job on behalf of U.S. here in #Ukrainehttp://ift.tt/1DIDDRW
— John Kerry (@JohnKerry) February 5, 2015
"The escalation of the conflict that's happening today, the increasing number of civilian casualties... should move the alliance to provide Ukraine with more support," Poroshenko told German newspaper Die Welt, as cited by AP.
"(That) includes, among other things, delivering modern weapons for protection and for resisting the aggressor."
President Barack Obama’s pick for defense secretary, Ashton Carter, said on Wednesday he was in favor of sending weapons to Ukraine.
“The nature of those arms, I can't say right now,” he said. “But I incline in the direction of providing them with arms, including, to get to what I'm sure your question is, lethal arms.”
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The possibility of the Obama administration reversing its Ukraine crisis policy and sending lethal assistance to Ukraine was first reported on Monday by the New York Times.
Moscow has slammed Washington’s readiness to supply weapons to Ukraine as double standards.
“Elsewhere in the world, our Western partners are calling for dialogue between the authorities and the opposition. Everywhere in Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan, South Sudan,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday. “But Ukraine is for some reason an exception. Western colleagues say that in Ukraine the most important thing is to support Kiev’s actions.”
READ MORE: US mulls providing Kiev forces with ‘defensive’ weapons – report
Vice President Joe Biden argued on Wednesday that the US had “no interest in military escalation.”
“But Ukraine has every right to defend itself and we are in fact providing security assistance to help Ukraine in this effort," he added in an interview published on European news sites and cited by AP.
Biden will join NATO officials on Friday for a series of meetings in Brussels.
Factsheet: #NATO’S practical support to #Ukrainehttp://t.co/4z86oR1PpX#DefMin
— Oana Lungescu (@NATOpress) February 5, 2015
Outgoing Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is already there, among NATO defense ministers who spoke on Thursday of boosting the alliance’s presence in Europe in order to counter any possible threat from Russia.
Part of the plan is to increase the size of NATO's rapid reaction force in the region from 13,000 to 30,000 soldiers and to introduce a fast-reacting 5,000-strong "spearhead" force.
The alliance announced on Wednesday it was expanding its Polish headquarters and reinforcing six command centers in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and the three Baltic states.
Kerry’s visit to Ukraine in tandem with Biden’s and Hagel’s visit to Europe, all focused on the Ukraine crisis, come as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande are visiting both Kiev and Moscow, pledging to come up with a peace deal acceptable to all parties.
READ MORE: Kremlin confirms Hollande, Merkel visit to discuss end to Ukraine civil war
The latest escalation of violence in eastern Ukraine started in mid-January after Kiev announced a mass operation against Donetsk airport, in violation of a previous ceasefire agreement.
There have since then been almost daily reports of civilian casualties in the conflict. Five people died in shelling on a hospital in Donetsk on Wednesday.
The UN has warned of a looming humanitarian catastrophe in the region.
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