Ukraine desperate for U.S. surveillance equipment in standoff with Russia

Meanwhile, a California company is installing eight tactical towers this month along the southeastern border. Mounted on them will be infrared cameras, like the ones on surveillance drones, as well as radars that can monitor sea, air and land.

These are small steps. But with a beleaguered State Border Guard Service, which has lost scores of troops in combat and is sometimes blind to enemy movements, any new equipment is welcomed.

John E. Herbst, who directs the Eurasia Center at the Atlantic Council think tank, is a retired career diplomat and ambassador to Ukraine from 2003 to 2006, a pivotal time of a presidential election and subsequent Orange Revolution street protests.

He says new surveillance equipment is “very useful” for two key reasons.

First, Russian troops on the eastern front continue low-intensity military operations against Ukraine.

“Moscow has a huge edge over Kiev in border surveillance technology,” Mr. Herbst said. “This means that Moscow has a better idea of where and how well fortified Ukrainian troops are near the line of contact. That translates into more casualties for Ukrainian forces and fewer for Russian separatist ones. It is certainly in Ukraine’s interest, but also in our interest, to help reverse that equation. Providing better surveillance equipment would help do that.”

Second, Mr. Herbst said, a network of sensors would alert Kiev to Russian troop movements beyond the line of contact, allowing it to see forces flowing into the region.

“If we provided Ukraine with intelligence assets enabling them to better monitor their border with Russia that is currently under Kremlin control, Kiev would have a much better idea of what equipment and soldiers are arriving in Ukraine from Russia,” he said. “This would help make the case that Moscow’s intervention in Ukraine is not diminishing despite its Minsk process obligations.”

The Minsk Agreement of 2014 and February 2015 among Mr. Putin and European leaders has brought an uneasy lull in the fighting in the volatile, rebel-filled Donbass eastern region bordering Russia.

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