Poroshenko: US promises Ukraine new weapons

The United States has pledged to supply new weapons to Ukraine, Ukrainian President Poroshenko said Sunday on state television. TASS News Agency cited Poroshenko as saying, "While in New York, I had three meetings with U.S. President Barack Obama - before and after meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and after talks with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, where he told me he had signed a document on supplying new weapons to Ukraine."

Kyiv Post also reported that Poroshenko said U.S. President Barack Obama signed a decree on providing Ukraine with new models of defensive weapons amid a ceasefire with pro-Russian separatists. The weapons will be used to help Ukraine detect multiple rocket launch fire, Bloomberg reported, citing a White House official who requested anonymity.

Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists have been holding a ceasefire since Oct. 2 and warring sides in the country on Saturday announced the start of smaller weapons withdrawal from a buffer zone. However, local elections in rebel-held territories in Ukraine and the issue of local autonomy have left the agreement deadlocked. Tensions between the U.S. and Russia have escalated after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced last week to start airstrikes over Syria to defend Bashar Assad's regime. During the U.N. General Assembly, Assad's position in any political transformation in Syria has been a dispute between the U.S. and Russia. Putin also responded to Obama's criticism over Ukrainian-Russian tension, saying the chaos in Ukraine was not caused by his country's intervention but by a military coup organized from the outside which triggered a civil war.

According to the Bloomberg, the Ukrainian army has already received U.S. caliber sniper rifles. Poroshenko said the country needs new weapons badly. More than 8,000 people have been killed in the conflict between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists since April 2014 despite ceasefires.