Reuters quotes Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center Director John Herbst on Obama’s Ukraine policy and the recently released report by the Atlantic Council recommending military assistance to Ukraine:
John Herbst, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine from 2003 to 2006, said that Obama’s “cautious instincts have served him and our country reasonably well in the Middle East… but he’s applied that same approach to Ukraine, where it doesn’t make sense.”
The difference is, Herbst said, that while Washington has struggled to identify reliable allies in post-revolution Libya or in Syria, it has an “acceptable partner” in the pro-Western Kiev government.
Herbst, now at the Atlantic Council think tank, contributed to a report this month by former top U.S. officials which recommended providing weapons to the Kiev government and $1 billion annually over the next three years to upgrade its defense capabilities.