Ukraine already asked and received money, equipment. Mainly US and IMF, mainly cold cash, and no weapons, but that would not be surprising if the cash was used to buy war gear, and the equipment given to soldiers.
There is also alleged presence of military advisors in Ukraine, and I've read a few times that they could have received technology to help fight against the rebels.
It will be harder for some to accept this possibility, than Russia being involved etc, but it is real that Ukraine is already being armed... it could become more "openly" armed in the near future but it would only be a step up in the direct confrontation, not really a new thing.
If you think the bankrupted Ukraine is fighting alone against evil Russian backed rebels, its time to wake up
They did receive the loans, but I believe the main funding source for this war for now is the additional 1.5% tax increase, which was done recently. As for military instructors, etc - I believe the scale of these things is ANYTHING, but sufficient. And scale matters in this case. 10 guys coming from NATO to work in ATO HQ is inadequate. On the other hand - I do not know the situation, but there might be enough potential in the current Ukraine officer corps to handle this, so this brings to another point - technical support. Like NVG stuff, FLIRS, AT weapons. Light weapons - I believe are plentifull in Ukraine, modern heavier weapons - I do not know, but knowing the state of our own army - those modern pieces are expensive and thus - not readily available.
In addition - what I would like to see and I think is technically and politically feasible (AND I'm ready to waste my tax money on this) is full blown surveillance of separatists via NATO monitoring capabilities (drones, satelites, radio monitoring, etc.) coupled with broad sharing of this data by passing it to Ukraine forces.
I think thats you saying your opinion here and one of the crucial point of the east vs west mentality: geopolitical motived confrontations that are unfortunately backed by the people of both side because of the "cold war honor".
This, is the sad reality.
Cold war story is that Ukraine is a brotherly nation to russia, where do they get the anti-east mentality from... I WONDER.
Lets play a history game. There was a country No1, whose part was thickly inhabited by "nationals" of Country No2. Country No2 decided decided that it needs to protect its nationals withing Country No1 and annexed part of it. When the leader of Country No2 felt no significant consequences from other countries due to this annexation - he continued to do what ever he wanted, which ended up in a world war.
And the game is: NAME THE COUNTRIES INVOVED.
I fully understand (AND SUPPORT) diplomacy (even if I don't look like this), but there is this one joke, which pretty much sums up what is happening now: don't bring a knife to a gunfight. There is another applicable joke too: a word and a gun is much stronger than just a word.
I'm baffled at one thing: russia has mocked west idea of "doing diplomacy" again, again and again. They blatantly lied, tricked, screwed over - and you still believe, that ONLY TALKING will resolve this? I do not believe that "ONLY TALKING" will be enough and yes this is my opinion, which I form based on what I see. That is why I'm saying, that more than talking needs to be done and on sufficient scale. If that does not happen - I believe I need to move somewhere away from putlers russia, because I failed to capitalize both of these names one time too many.
Oh, and in order NOT to keep this so gloomy and so that Vovka would not be overly concerned about sex life of others:
http://www.reddit.com/r/UkrainianConflict/comments/2f5phz/lavrov_russia_is_not_excluded_from_the_g8_its/ Comments deliver!