WASHINGTON DC – A bipartisan pair of leading US senators on Wednesday issued a sharp rebuke of what they see as a weakening US resolve, warning that a perceived retreat from supporting Ukraine is emboldening Russia.
The move follows Russia’s largest aerial assault on Kyiv early this week, an attack many in the US Capitol view as a “calculated provocation against America’s allies.”
Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Thom Tillis (R-NC), who co-chair the Senate NATO Observer Group, condemned the recent airstrike, which involved more than 800 missiles and drones and reportedly killed civilians, including a mother and her infant.
Their joint statement frames the attack not just as an act of aggression against Ukraine but as a direct challenge to Western unity.
“Putin has shown us time and again that he is a liar and a murderer,” the statement reads. “He never wanted peace.”
The lawmakers’ warning zeroes in on the potential for cuts to key security cooperation programs, such as Section 333, which provides security assistance to allies, including the Baltic Security Initiative.
Shaheen and Tillis argue that scaling back these programs sends a “dangerous” message to adversaries who might believe they can simply outlast US commitment.
“Our adversaries are taking note that they can wait out American support – that does not make America safer,” they wrote.
The statement is a bipartisan call to action, urging Congress to swiftly pass legislation that would impose “crippling sanctions” on Moscow and solidify ongoing US military support for Ukraine and NATO’s eastern flank.
Expert says war will continue unless West intervenes
The senators’ statement echoes warnings from military analysts who believe a decisive Western intervention may be the only way to end the conflict.
Retired US Army Colonel Richard Williams, a former deputy director in NATO’s Defense Investment Division, told Kyiv Post that despite “horrific Russian casualties,” Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin is pursuing “ultimate and full victory in Ukraine through long-term attrition warfare.”
Williams said that while Putin’s “intransigence is met by Ukraine’s and Europe’s equally unmovable stance,” the Russian president doubts Europe’s resolve.
“He considers Europe’s ambiguity in [the] face of the threat of war too great for its leaders to risk all by defending Ukraine’s sovereignty,” Williams said, which he believes explains “the war’s continuation and the elusiveness of peace.”
Williams argues that unless Kyiv receives “unprecedented arms assistance,” Europe may face a stark choice: “intervene militarily or resign itself to Ukraine’s enslavement by Russia.”
He also offered a third option: “an intervention... by a unified commanded contingent of the willing, which must be planned in advance.”