Three U.S. senators are in Ukraine to urge the American government and its European allies to do more to support Ukraine in its defense against Russia's war in eastern Ukraine and the Kremlin's occupation of the Crimean peninsula.
The Republican Party delegation was led by U.S. Sen. John McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and included Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming.
McCain said that he and the senators met with President Petro Poroshenko, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, as well as visited soldiers, volunteers and a military command center in eastern Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk, where they said they found morale high but soldiers in need of better equipment.
The visit comes as the U.S. Congress is trying to ratchet up pressure and persuade U.S. President Barack Obama to drop his opposition to providing Ukraine with lethal weapons. The U.S. Senate voted unanimously this week to provide defensive weapons to Ukraine and McCain is confident that the U.S. House of Representatives will do the same.
The Obama administration is opposed to taking such a step because it sees no military solution to the conflict and fears Russia will merely escalate in response.
However, McCain repeated his criticism of Obama, saying that “it’s not fair that” Ukraine is fighting with 20th century weapons while Russia is using 21st century weapons in its proxy invasion of Ukraine.
“I cannot answer for the president of the United States and his administration, except to say this is shameful, shameful we will not provide Ukrainians with the weapons they need to defend themselves,” McCain told a televised news conference at the Ukraine Crisis Media Center on June 20..
He and other senators said Ukraine, besides modern weapons, needs better intelligence systems and other supplies.
McCain favors the introduction of “crushing sanctions against Russia” to stop its war of dismemberment against Ukraine, now in its second year.
“Frankly it’s shameful that our European friends wouldn’t be of more assistance and shameful that the United States won’t lead,” McCain told a televised news conference at the Ukraine Crisis Media Center on June 20.
Cotton said it is high time for the world “to stop construction off ramps and to start construction of roadblocks” to stop Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Several journalists asked about Ukraine’s ongoing corruption and failure to punish high-level murders and multibillion-dollar financial crime, including many cases in which former allies of ousted President Viktor Yanukovych are suspects.
McCain said he is confident that Poroshenko will adopt “a slew of reforms that will help Ukraine overcome its post-Soviet legacy of malfeasance,” but admitted that more action is needed to revive “stalled corruption investigations” and hold “those responsible for past misconduct. There’s no greater problem and no greater test for Ukraine’s leaders than the fight against corruption.”
Barrasso of Wyoming also called on the United States to help Europe and Ukraine reduce their energy dependence on Russia, which is hurting the willingness of governments to stand up to “this thug and this bully of Vladimir Putin.”
McCain said the world should take seriously Putin’s claims that Ukraine and Russia are one country. He said that Putin is trying to achieve this militarily, because he wouldn’t be able to do so democratically.
The senators blamed Putin for violations of the Minsk II peace agreements reached in February.
McCain said the biggest economic blow against Putin has not been Western sanctions, but rather the drop in the price of oil, the export of which Russia is heavily reliant on. He thanked Saudi Arabia for driving down the price.
McCain said that the West won the Cold War against the Soviet Union through military strength and can defeat Putin the same way, but not as long as “he is getting away with the murders of brave Ukrainians who are trying to defend their country.”
He also said that “corruption is a serious problem” and that “the more often and sooner there are high-level and well-identified individuals brought to justice, the more the people of Ukraine will have confidence.
But Cotton said Ukraine’s corruption shouldn’t be an impediment to arms transfers, saying the U.S. has experience in “safely transferring all kinds of military aid to allies without it falling into the wrong hands.”
Said McCain: “Right now the weapons are a critical issue in preventing Vladimir Putin from further encroachment in eastern Ukraine.”
McCain, as a former prisoner of war in the Vietnam era, said the support and appreciation of the people is the “most important factor” in helping soldiers adjust to civilian life. “I know that the people of Ukraine honor the brave young men and some women who are literally sacrificing their lives to defend their nation.”
McCain also said the United States should do more to counter Russian propaganda. He said that, during the Cold War, the West’s ability to report the truth “beamed into the Soviet Union” helped and inspired dissidents there.
Cotton said Ukraine’s success is the best deterrent to Russian propaganda.
“No matter how many propaganda stories Russia will try to put out, a successful Ukraine will refute them all,” Cotton said.
Kyiv Post chief editor Brian Bonner can be reached at [email protected]
