Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in an interview that the United States should tighten the screws on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war machine and help Ukraine achieve victory.
Pompeo, who once served in the Army’s armored cavalry division patrolling the border of the Iron Curtain in Europe, said it was time to bolster Ukraine’s forces fully and demand the same of our allies. And though he applauded President Joe Biden for providing defensive weaponry and other aid to Ukraine, he said the speed and scale of the response were lacking.
“The Ukrainians have demonstrated they can win. We should help them win,” Pompeo told the Washington Examiner in an interview Tuesday. “What we’ve done today is help them avoid losing.”
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has appealed to the U.S. and its allies for heavier weapons as his country girds for a military onslaught by Russia in the east. He has also called for “painful” sanctions on Russia, including cutting off access to the international financial system and urging a full embargo on its oil and gas imports, which made up almost half of its federal budget last year. Russia will earn more than $320 billion from energy exports this year, up more than 30% since 2021, according to an analysis from Bloomberg Economics.
Zelensky has also taken aim at NATO countries, telling the Economist that some “don’t mind a long war because it would mean exhausting Russia, even if this means the demise of Ukraine and comes at the cost of Ukrainian lives.”
Despite sending Kyiv billions of dollars in security assistance — including ammunition, defensive weapon and anti-armor systems, and humanitarian support — the Biden administration has faced questions over whether it is doing enough to help Ukraine overcome Russian forces.
The former CIA director and soldier said now is the time to boost Ukraine’s battlefield capabilities.
“Comprehensive looks like recognizing that the Ukrainians haven’t asked for a single American soldier,” Pompeo said. “We should provide them the things that they’re asking for.”
Ukraine’s top diplomat made an appeal to NATO on Thursday to provide “weapons, weapons, weapons” to aid his country’s defense.
“The more weapons we get, and the sooner they arrive in Ukraine, the more human lives will be saved,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said before a meeting of alliance leaders in Brussels, “the more cities and villages will not be destructed. And there will be no more Buchas.” Bucha is a town outside Kyiv where the retreat of Russian forces revealed scenes of civilian atrocities.
Zelensky has said Kyiv needs tanks, jets, and anti-ship systems and has asked for a no-fly zone over the country, a request that Washington has repeatedly ruled out. Defense officials argue that fulfilling Zelensky’s requests could draw the U.S. into direct conflict with Russia.
Still, the former Trump administration official said there was more the U.S. could do to put a stranglehold on Moscow, for example by enforcing the maximum penalties on Russia’s banking sector and closing any loopholes.
“When we put sanctions in place, we shouldn’t leave backdoors open,” Pompeo said. “If a single bank is unsanctioned, that’s where the money will flow, and that’s a mistake. The sanctions aren’t real and complete until you have sanctioned the Russian Central Bank and all of its affiliates.”
And he suggested that Washington should be prepared to impose costs on countries unwilling to cut trade with Moscow, a significant step that the Biden administration has not yet endorsed.
Top U.S. officials have warned that Russia is “revising its war aims” after retreating from Kyiv five weeks into the conflict, with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley testifying Tuesday that the “very protracted” battle could last years.
Pompeo’s successor in the State Department, Antony Blinken, said in an interview with NBC from Brussels this week that Ukraine would ultimately secure a victory over Russia but warned of a “very likely scenario by which this goes on for some time.”
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Biden met with trans-Atlantic leaders for several high-stakes summits last month in an attempt to marshal European resolve against Moscow’s aggression. While the talks yielded some progress, with a plan to wean the bloc off of Russian energy over the coming years, European leaders are still divided over whether to impose their most punishing options now. The German government has said it fears more extreme measures could plunge the European economy into recession.
For now, a full European energy embargo remains off the table despite Zelensky’s insistence that it is necessary to stop the war.
