DEFENSE/JAMES MATTIS/RUSSIA/UKRAINE: “Defense Secretary Jim Mattis vowed on Thursday [8-24-17] to help Ukraine stand up to Russian violations of its sovereignty and signaled that the Trump administration was considering providing defensive weapons to the Ukrainian military.
President Barack Obama had resisted such a step, fearing it would be seen as a provocation by Russia. In the first visit to Ukraine by an American defense secretary in nearly a decade, Mr. Mattis seemed to be anticipating that argument…
State and Defense Department officials have recommended that the United States provide Javelin anti-tank missiles and other defensive weapons to Ukraine to strengthen its forces and raise the potential cost to the Kremlin of a Russian attack.
But President Trump, who has consistently taken a more conciliatory position toward Russia than have his top national security advisers, has yet to take up the matter.
Mr. Mattis declined to disclose what he planned to recommend to Mr. Trump. Nor did he indicate any timetable for deciding the matter. But his comments suggested that he was sympathetic to supplying defensive weapons — long a topic of enormous interest in Ukraine.”
-Michael R. Gordon, “Jim Mattis, in Ukraine, Says U.S. Is Thinking of Sending Weapons,” The New York Times online, Aug. 24 2017