Merkel defends Ukraine arms stance in face of U.S. criticism

By Stephen Brown and Noah Barkin
MUNICH (Reuters) - Germany's Angela Merkel
said on Saturday that sending arms to help
Ukraine fight pro-Russian separatists would not
solve the crisis there, drawing sharp rebukes
from U.S. politicians who accused Berlin of
turning its back on an ally in distress.
The heated exchanges at a security conference
in Munich pointed to cracks in the transatlantic
consensus on how to confront Russian President
Vladimir Putin over a deepening conflict in
eastern Ukraine that has killed more than 5,000.
Ukraine's military said on Saturday that pro-
Russian separatists had stepped up shelling of
government forces and appeared to be
amassing troops for new offensives on the key
railway town of Debaltseve and the coastal city
of Mariupol.
The rebel offensive has triggered a flurry of
shuttle diplomacy, with Merkel and French
President Francois Hollande jetting to Moscow on
Friday to try to convince Putin to do a peace
deal.
But European officials acknowledge that the
Russian leader may have little incentive to
negotiate now, preferring to sit back and watch
as separatists seize more territory, undermining
a ceasefire agreement clinched last September
in the Belarus capital Minsk.
The German leader conceded in Munich, after
returning home from Moscow in the dead of
night, that it was uncertain whether a Franco-
German peace plan presented to Kiev and
Moscow this week would succeed.
But she flatly rejected the notion that sending
weapons to Kiev, an idea being considered by
U.S. President Barack Obama, would help
resolve the conflict.
"I understand the debate but I believe that
more weapons will not lead to the progress
Ukraine needs. I really doubt that," said the
conservative German leader, who has led
western efforts to try to resolve the crisis
through negotiations and will travel to
Washington on Sunday for talks with Obama.
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, speaking at the
same conference, tried to play down differences
with Europe, saying he and Obama agreed that
no efforts should be spared to resolve the
conflict peacefully.
But he made clear that Washington stood ready
to provide Ukraine with the means to defend
itself, saying: "Too many times President Putin
has promised peace and delivered tanks, troops
and weapons."
BLANKETS VS TANKS
U.S. senators Lyndsey Graham and John McCain,
both Republican hawks, were withering in their
criticism of the German stance, which is
supported by other big European countries like
France.
"At the end of the day, to our European friends,
this is not working," Graham said of Merkel's
diplomatic efforts. "You can go to Moscow until
you turn blue in the face. Stand up to what is
clearly a lie and a danger."
McCain added: "The Ukrainians are being
slaughtered and we're sending them blankets
and meals. Blankets don't do well against
Russian tanks."
Russia's annexation of the Crimean peninsula in
March last year and evidence that it is
supporting separatist forces in the east of the
country, which the Kremlin denies, have driven
Moscow's relations with the West to a post-Cold
War low.
The EU and United States have imposed a series
of sanctions against Moscow that have
contributed to a sharp downturn in the Russian
economy.
Merkel and her allies in Europe want to continue
to punish Russia by tightening the economic
screws. Obama faces pressure from members of
Congress to do more.
In an emotional plea for support in Munich,
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko listed the
number of troops and civilians that had been
killed since the crisis started and held up red
passports of Russian soldiers he said had been
found fighting in Ukraine.
"We are an independent nation and we have a
right to defend our people," he said, calling for
political, economic and military support. Calling
himself a "president of peace", he made clear
that Kiev only wanted defensive weaponry.
He received strong backing from Lithuanian
President Dalia Grybauskaite, who said Ukraine
should be supported "with a