Ukrainian-born US congresswoman Victoria Spartz has likened Kyiv and its parliament to “morons and crooks” and claimed she has supported her native land despite her contradicting statements that suggest otherwise.
Spartz made the comment in an official statement on Tuesday in response to an article by The Telegraph titled “Ukraine’s first US congresswoman: Zelensky must cede land to Russia.”
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‘Morons and crooks’
Spartz, in her statement, reiterated her disdain for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his current administration, likening them to “morons and crooks.”
“I spent an enormous amount of energy trying to help the Ukrainian military to win their brutal fight against Russia. Unfortunately, if you have morons and crooks like Zelensky and his puppet parliament running your country, it’s a lost cause,” Spartz said.
Despite claiming to support Ukraine, Spartz voted against the $61 billion aid package for Ukraine in early 2024, a bill vital for Ukraine’s defense, whose delay allowed Russia to make territorial gains.
She cited the need for oversight as the reason for her opposition.
According to Republicans for Ukraine, a site that tracks Republican lawmakers’ support for Ukraine, Spartz had been more pro-Ukrainian at the onset of Moscow’s 2022 invasion, voting for multiple bills that bolstered Kyiv’s defenses.
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Before the $61 billion bill gained traction, Spartz had said “only weapons can bring peace” and reiterated her call for more oversight in October 2023, according to a Politico report, before eventually voting against the bill that would bring said weapons to Ukraine.
Umbrage with The Telegraph
The UK news website The Telegraph published an article on Monday about Spartz, entitled: “Ukraine’s first US congresswoman: Zelensky must cede land to Russia.”
In the article, Spartz is quoted: “I just don’t see how they [Ukrainians] can be positioned to demand to keep the land.”
In a statement on her website Tuesday, Spartz said The Telegraph “intentionally” misrepresented what she said to “smear her.”
She said that after her team reached out, The Telegraph corrected its headline, but that it was still misleading: “The Telegraph article even used quotes to misquote something Congresswoman Spartz never said. After several interactions with our team, they deleted the quotes but still kept a colon to make an appearance of this false statement.”
In her Tuesday statement, Spartz reaffirmed her support for current ceasefire initiatives put forward by the administration of US President Donald Trump, but hedged on whether she thought Zelensky would need to cede land to Russia.
“The current reality on the ground is that Ukraine is not in the position to retake its territories, nor could they agree to give them up permanently,” Spartz wrote.
She added: “Therefore, only a temporary solution with the help of the United States can be achieved, which will give each side some time to regroup. The end result of that war will have to be decided later and not just on a battlefield.”
Both Kyiv and Moscow have argued that a ceasefire would allow the other party to regroup, hinting at more bloodshed eventually as a result.
Who’s Victoria Spartz?
Victoria Spartz (née Kulheiko) is the only Ukrainian-born lawmaker in the US Congress.
Spartz was born in 1978 in Nosivka, southeast of Nizhyn in Ukraine’s Chernihiv region, which was then still the USSR.
In 2000, Spartz immigrated to the US at age 22 after meeting her husband, Jason Spartz, and later became a US citizen in 2006. Spartz said she met her husband on a train in Europe in her official biography.
“Rep. Spartz worked in the Big Four public accounting firms for Fortune 500 companies, taught as an adjunct faculty member at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, and served as the CFO at the Indiana Attorney General’s Office. She also started several businesses in financial consulting, farming, and real estate,” the biography reads.
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