Washington, D.C. – Last week, the Trump administration, reversed its previous position and announced they had agreed to supply advanced lethal defensive weapons to the Ukrainian government — including the likely delivery of Javelin anti-tank weapons — which could decimate Russian armor. This is a move sure to be seen in Moscow as a drastic escalation that will almost certainly precipitate a Russian retaliation.

Russian officials denounced President Trump's authorization of lethal equipment to the Ukrainians as an aggressive act meant to deliberately sabotage the Minsk peace process.

"The United States has crossed a line by announcing its intention to supply lethal weapons to Ukraine," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Saturday. "U.S. weapons are capable of leading to new casualties in our neighboring country, and we cannot remain indifferent to that."

The decision was framed by the State Department as one of assisting Ukraine to fight back against Russian "aggression" and was lauded by Congressional war hawks as a necessary step to confront what many neocons and Cold War relics see as an expansionist Russian foreign policy.