Amid New Push for Ukraine Peace Accord, 'Nobel Laureate Obama' Says US Weapons Still an Option

Despite indications that further militarization will only worsen fighting on the ground, President Obama said Monday that should upcoming peace talks fail, he will consider sending “lethal defensive weapons” to Ukraine.

The U.S. president made the comment during a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who ahead of upcoming peace negotiations came to Washington to discuss the ongoing crisis.

Though he acknowledged that the likelihood of a military solution is low, especially given the strength of Russian forces, Obama said that among the options being weighed by his administration is the possibility of arming Ukraine.

“If, in fact, diplomacy fails, I’ve asked my team to look at all options, what other means can we put in place to change Mr. [Vladimir] Putin’s calculus,” Obama said. “And the possibility of lethal defensive weapons is one of those options that’s being examined. But I have not made a decision on that yet.”

The proposal is “not based on the idea that Ukraine could defeat the Russian army,” he continued, but rather the aim would be to “bolster its defenses in the face of separatist aggression.”

Merkel, on the other hand, said that she and French President Francois Holland have committed to “make one further attempt” to secure a diplomatic agreement. The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France reportedly spoke by phone over the weekend and are planning to meet in Minsk, Belarus on Wednesday to try to broker a new ceasefire agreement.

Merkel displayed little optimism for the success of the talks, but said she does “not see a military solution to this conflict.”

To which Obama added: “We can’t simply try to talk them out of it. We have to show them that the world is unified in imposing a cost for this aggression.”

Later, a reporter from the German press asked Merkel: “What is red line across which the Ukrainian army must be armed? And what can the Nobel laureate Obama do more to defuse this conflict?” Neither leader appeared to respond directly to the question.