US Javelin anti-tank missiles will not be used on the line of contact in Donbass. As Ukraine’s deputy minister for the temporarily occupied territories and internally displaced persons George Tuka told reporters, this was the condition set by Washington for selling the missiles to Ukraine.
Observers say, such interdiction was most probably caused by Washington’s unwillingness to provoke deployment of Russian weapons near the line of contact.
“As Kiev has Javelins, but they are not engaged in the conflict, Moscow has no grounds to supply similar weapons to the military of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics,” Director of the Ukrainian Center of Political Studies and Conflictology Mikhail Pogrebinsky said on air of NSN radio.
Moreover, specific skills are needed to use Javelins, he added, while the Ukrainian Armed Forces need some time to train the staff. Pogrebinsky said that now the missiles “are being stored at warehouse and used for training.”
The US State Department decided to supply the Javelin missile systems to Ukraine late December 2017. On April 30, the fact of shipment to Kiev was confirmed. On May 2, Ukrainian Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak said that the Ukrainian army started training Javelin squads.
