Washington – Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Sunday that he believes the “vast majority” of Republicans fully support Ukraine in his defense against the ongoing attacks in Russia, responding to comments from a small faction of House Republicans who have criticized U.S. support for the country.
In an interview with Face the Nation, McConnell was asked about the comments of Republican representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina, who indicated that they oppose the United States helping Ukraine in his war against Russia.
Cawthorn was filmed calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “bully” and claiming that the Ukrainian government is “incredibly corrupt” and “incredibly evil.” Greene, for his part, said in a Facebook address that the United States should not send weapons and aid to help Ukraine in a war “that they cannot win.”
“There are some lonely voices that are in a different place,” McConnell told Face the Nation, though he didn’t mention Cawthorn or Greene by name. “The vast majority of members of the Republican Party, both in Congress and across the country, are completely behind the Ukrainians and call on the president to take these steps more quickly, to be bolder. There may be some lonely voices in the I wouldn’t pay much attention to them. “
- Transcript: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on “Face the Nation”
Cawthorn and Greene are largely atypical among Republicans in Congress, although their comments sparked a silent response from Republican House leaders. House minority leader Kevin McCarthy said Cawthorn was “wrong.” and it is Russian President Vladimir Putin who is a “bully,” but said he still supports the North Carolina congressman’s re-election proposal.
However, many Republicans have urged President Biden to increase US support for Ukraine and a package of government spending that included $ 13.6 billion in humanitarian and security assistance to Ukraine and European countries. East. passed both chambers with bipartisan support.
McConnell said that if he were the leader of the majority, he would have brought the additional funding for Ukraine as a stand-alone bill and predicted that “virtually all my members would have voted for it.” Thirty-one Republican senators voted against the spending package that included aid.
In addition to the $ 13.6 billion approved by Congress, the United States had provided more than $ 2 billion in military assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden administration. But McConnell said that if Ukraine needs more, “we should give them more.”
“This is a way of having an air exclusion zone in place, that these weapons systems, ground-to-air weapons systems, give them a chance to fight to control the air, to shoot down planes and others who are looking to control the air without the United States having an air exclusion zone and our own pilots there, “said the Kentucky Republican.
McConnell said Mr Biden had “generally done the right thing, but never soon enough” with Ukraine, and urged the president to “step up his game”.
“Ukrainians have killed more Russians in three weeks than we lost in Afghanistan and Iraq in 20 years,” he said. “I think we should get into this by believing that the Ukrainians can really win and the way they are winning is that we bring them these defensive weapon systems as quickly as possible.”
To bolster Ukraine’s defenses against Russian attacks, the United States has provided more than 600 Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, approximately 2,600 anti-tank javelin missiles, shotguns, machine guns and ammunition. Mr. Biden last week announced an additional $ 800 million in security assistance in Ukraine, which includes 800 anti-aircraft systems, drones, 20 million rounds of ammunition and 9,000 anti-armor systems.
But Zelenskyy made one emotional appeal directly to Congress last week for the United States to create a no-fly zone over Ukrainian skies, a request that Biden opposes, as it would force the U.S. to link directly with the Russian military.
Many in Congress also do not support the imposition of a no-fly zone over Ukraine, but divided with the Biden administration for its rejection of a Polish proposal to transfer MiG fighter jets to Ukraine.
McConnell said he was “perplexed” about why the United States could not prevent Polish warplanes from arriving in Ukraine.
“Ukrainians have a lot of pilots who know how to pilot them,” he said. “In these Eastern Bloc countries, they have Soviet ground-to-air systems that the Ukrainians know how to work. We have the resources that are given to the president to get these weapons to get there as quickly as possible.”
In the 25 days since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, Russian forces have struggled in their efforts to take control of the capital of Kyiv and its advance outside other major cities has come to a standstill. measure. The number of civilian deaths in Ukraine, however, continues to rise with the relentless attacks of Russia.
In the port city of Mariupol, Ukrainian officials have accused Russia bombing an art school where 400 people were sheltered, marking the second attack on a public building where civilians were sheltered in less than a week. Russian forces hit a theater in Mariupol where it is believed there were more than 1,300 people last week.
The United Nations Office for Human Rights estimated on Saturday that nearly 900 civilians had died in Ukraine and about 1,400 more were injured, although the death toll is likely to be much higher.
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