1、CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress Legal SidebarLegal Sidebari i International Neutrality Law and U.S. Military Assistance to Ukraine April 26, 2022 The United States, the European Union (EU), and others have supplied many forms of security assistance to Ukraine in the
2、 weeks since Russias invasion. Recent U.S. assistance to Ukraine, discussed in an earlier In Focus, ranges from ammunition to anti-aircraft weapons to communications systems. At the same time, the United States has stopped short of sending some military equipment requested by Ukrainian President Vol
3、odymyr Zelensky, such as combat aircraft. Deciding which arms to provide raises a variety of legal, political, and practical considerations, including the potential for escalation with Russia, the Ukrainian militarys capacity to operate the equipment, and the risk that Russia could reverse engineer
4、captured equipment. While international law is just one facet of this calculus, media outlets report that the Biden Administration discussed questions about the legality of U.S. security assistance, and observers have analyzed whether supplying arms could violate the international law of neutrality.