Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently met with a bipartisan group of senators and expressed gratitude for the support his country has received from the United States — while asking for more.
Republican Sens. Rob Portman, Kevin Cramer, and Roger Wicker traveled with Democratic Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, Chris Murphy, Amy Klobuchar, and Richard Blumenthal to meet with Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials Monday during a short congressional delegation trip.
The meeting came amid the threat that Russia, which has amassed a significant military presence on the border with Ukraine, could invade the former Soviet country.
Zelensky, in a meeting with the senators, “was very grateful for what the United States has done in terms of lethal weapons systems, defensive systems, both through Congress and through the presidential drawdown authority that he has,” Cramer, who was in the meeting, told the Washington Examiner in an interview.
“He didn’t shy away from asking for more,” the North Dakotan senator added.
While Zelensky was looking for reinforcements from the U.S., Cramer said many Ukrainians that he interacted with did not feel “a sense of crisis about it.”
“The way they describe it … is that they’ve lived with sort of this tension with Russia for the last roughly eight years,” he continued. “And so they become accustomed to it, even though it’s clearly different than it was eight years ago.”
The White House has said this week that it is concerned “Russia could at any point launch an attack on Ukraine” and that Russia could conduct a “false flag operation” to drum up a supposed action to justify a military response. Russia wants NATO to stay out of Ukraine and other nations formerly a part of the Soviet Union, while the U.S. is hoping to avoid conflict and an invasion.
President Joe Biden met with the senators Wednesday morning to hear about their trip.
“President Biden and the senators exchanged views on the best ways the United States can continue to work closely with our allies and partners in support of Ukraine, including both ongoing diplomacy to try to resolve the current crisis and deterrence measures,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement. “President Biden commended the strong history of support for Ukraine from both sides of the aisle and agreed to keep working closely with Congress as the administration prepares to impose significant consequences in response to further Russian aggression against Ukraine.”
Cramer was among a group of GOP senators on the Armed Services Committee that held a press conference Wednesday in which they called for the U.S. and allies to strengthen their threats of sanctions against Russia in a play to pressure Putin into not invading.
The group called on Germany to use Nord Stream 2, the gas pipeline from Russia to Germany that is not yet operational, as leverage to prevent a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“Germany continues to insist that Nord Stream should go forward. They refuse to be specific about the kinds of sanctions and penalties Vladimir Putin should face if he invades [Ukraine],” Sen. Tom Cotton said.
They also called on Congress and the Biden administration to move forward with stronger sanctions against Russia as a deterrent, though there is not a consensus on how to do that.
The Senate voted against legislation brought forth by GOP Sen. Ted Cruz that would have imposed heavy sanctions on the company behind the pipeline. The bill picked up a handful of Democrat votes, though it did not have the support of the White House.
Sen. Bob Menendez, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, introduced a different bill backed by the White House that would impose sanctions on Russia and provide military assistance to Ukraine if Russia escalates hostile actions against its neighbor, while Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio introduced a separate bill last week, and if passed, it would impose personal sanctions on Putin and other Russian leaders if their troops further invade Ukraine.
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Cramer said the specific bill is less important than passing one in a timely manner.
“We really, as Republicans and Democrats on the relevant committees and otherwise, need to work on a package that blends together some of the … Menendez bill and some of the Risch, Rubio — there are others that have bills — but we need to do it fast,” he argued. “We need to have a substantial, hard-hitting set of sanctions that will hurt and hurt a lot to be a deterrent because right now, I think Vladimir Putin understandably doesn’t really believe us.”
