{"id":79537,"date":"2019-10-01T18:42:51","date_gmt":"2019-10-01T18:42:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/10\/01\/in-wartime-ukraine-trumps-stalled-us-weapons-sale-is-a-minor-concern\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T04:05:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T04:05:38","slug":"in-wartime-ukraine-trumps-stalled-us-weapons-sale-is-a-minor-concern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/commentary\/2019\/10\/01\/in-wartime-ukraine-trumps-stalled-us-weapons-sale-is-a-minor-concern\/","title":{"rendered":"In wartime Ukraine, Trump\u2019s stalled US weapons sale is a minor concern"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A roiling controversy about President Donald Trump\u2019s interactions with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky over whether the former pressed the latter to investigate the son of Joe Biden has put a spotlight on Ukraine and its grinding conflict with Russia-backed militants \u2014 especially in Washington, where the deadly conflict in Ukraine has become a political ping pong ball and Trump faces the very real possibility of being impeached<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But as my colleagues in journalism dig into the unfolding scandal about whether Trump withheld arms to a friendly nation fighting Russians in pursuit of political favors, I wanted to know how this is all playing out in Ukraine, where the loudest noise emanates not from the chattering class, but from Russian artillery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bottom line up front?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Folks in Ukraine are not overly bothered by the controversy, nor any delay in the arms sales<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to know what this all means to Ukraine\u2019s military, because by extension that has a real effect on ours. Ukraine has become a laboratory for how the U.S. might one day have to fight the Russians, and we have U.S. troops there training Ukraine forces. Plus, we already have seen the Russian lessons learned in Ukraine carried out by Russian-backed forces against U.S. troops in Syria in the form of electronic warfare that interfered with U.S. aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among those I contacted was Oleksandr Danylyuk, chairman and founder of the Centre for Defense Reforms, an independent think-tank focused on developing and promoting reforms in Ukraine\u2019s defense and security sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We spoke Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Oleksandr Danylyuk is the chairman and founder of the Centre for Defense Reform, an independent think tank in Ukraine focusing on promoting development and reforms in that nation’s defense and security sectors.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From the outset of the Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine in 2014, Danylyuk played a leadership role in the fledgling Maidan <\/a>movement. In early 2014, under the new government, he became an adviser to the chief of the Department for State Security and since took on posts with the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense as the chief adviser to the minister of defense, reporting directly to him. And between 2018 and 2019, Danylyuk served in the same position in the Foreign Intelligence Service, Ukraine\u2019s CIA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danylyuk is well-known to the U.S. military, especially the special operations community, and has been frequently called upon as an expert to talk about Russian unconventional warfare, political war, influence operations, covert and clandestine activities, and asymmetrical geopolitics. Since 2014, he has served as a special adviser on these issues for several allied governments in Eastern Europe who are also the targets of Russian hybrid aggression. He has also been used as a trainer and lecturer by the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center & School as well as America\u2019s National Defense University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I first met Danylyuk, who goes by the name of Sasha, several years ago when he was working with the Florida-based Global SOF Foundation to help create Ukraine\u2019s version of a Special Operations Command. He is one of several Ukraine military personnel I have come to know over the years and one of the people whose opinion I value the most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Washington, questions about Trump\u2019s role in the Ukraine arms package are all about intent. In Ukraine, they are about effect. The two should neither be confused nor conflated. While we in this country have a constitutional crisis on our hands, Danylyuk says he does not find the Trump-Zelensky conversation troubling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe saw the text of the conversation\u201d between Trump and Zelensky \u201cand it did not look like there were any problems, at least for me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"President
President Donald Trump participates in a bilateral meeting with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zalensky on Sept. 25, 2019, at the InterContinental New York Barclay in New York City. (Shealah Craighead\/White House)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Danylyuk said that in Ukraine, it does not appear that Trump pressured Zelensky to investigate Hunter Biden through a threat to withhold military aid. Of course, he is not looking at it through the prism of U.S. politics. Nearly 5,000 miles east of Washington, the embattled American government\u2019s woes lose impact in a European nation fighting a shooting war with Russia that\u2019s resulted in 13,000 deaths and counting since 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danylyuk said the current controversy ripping apart America is being fueled by the same Russian influence operation that played havoc with the 2016 presidential election. The goal of the Russians, he said, was not to support Trump, but to tear apart the U.S. Like a real world version of \u201cThe Twilight Zone\u201d episode \u201cThe Monsters Are Due on Maple Street,\u201d it\u2019s working. Plus any delay in arms sales to Ukraine may be at least in part because of Chinese efforts to procure Ukraine aviation technology, Danylyuk added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Ukraine were a person, it\u2019s Facebook page would describe its current relationship as \u201ccomplicated.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve written before about concerns that a delay in the U.S. arms sales to Ukraine could have a negative effect on that nation\u2019s efforts against the Russians, especially since previous shipments of equipment like the AN\/TPQ anti-fires radar systems and Javelin missiles have greatly helped Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\t