Washington – A growing chorus of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are calling on the Biden administration to provide Ukraine with fighter jets and weapons to bolster its defense against continued attacks by Russia.
The 58-member bipartisan troubleshooters caucus became the latest group of lawmakers on Sunday to push for Ukraine to receive more U.S. military assistance, including aid to secure Stinger missiles, air defense systems and fighter jets.
“Despite the heroic and skillful resistance of the Ukrainian forces, Russia currently maintains air superiority over Ukraine,” the group said in a statement. “Russia’s advantage in this area could soon become airspace if the Ukrainians do not receive the necessary military aid.”
The caucus urged the Biden administration to work with NATO allies to organize and expedite the transfer of any available S-300 surface-to-air missile system available in Ukraine.
“Providing Soviet-era platforms that members of the Ukrainian service have previously operated and maintained will be essential to their success on the battlefield and will also protect American defense technology from falling into the hands of the Russians,” he said. Troubleshooters Caucus.
Also Sunday, Republican Sen. Rob Portman and Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar said separately that warplanes are key tools for Ukraine as the country seeks to fight Russia’s air power.
Portman and Klobuchar are part of a four-member delegation that traveled to Poland over the weekend to meet with officials and visit refugee sites.
“What we have heard directly from the Ukrainians is that they love them very much,” Portman of Ohio said in an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union,” referring to MiG-29 fighter jets. Soviet style. “They want the ability to have better control over the sky to give them a chance to fight. So I don’t understand why we don’t.”
The Ohio Republican also said that while it is not “top tier,” anti-aircraft systems like the S-300 are still “very effective.”
“At least let’s put them in Ukraine. And let’s stop talking about them. Let’s do it,” he told CNN from Poland. “But planes are also essential.”
Klobuchar, also on CNN, said he spoke with President Biden about 10 days ago and made it clear that he supported sending fighter jets to Ukraine.
“I still don’t rule out having planes at some point. But again, you take one day at a time and make the best decisions in the defense system,” he said. “And that can’t always be discussed on the air, or it would give Vladimir Putin the roadmap of what NATO wants to do here to help protect Ukraine.”
Still, the Minnesota Democrat said Stingers and Javelin planes, drones or missiles would help Ukraine protect itself from Russia’s continued attacks.
“One of the things we have to remember is that it’s air defense,” he said.
The United States had been working on an agreement with Poland to send its Russian-made planes to Ukraine, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken said “Face the Nation” last week the Polish government had “green light” to send planes to Ukraine.
But after Poland last week offered to deploy its MiG-29 aircraft at Ramstein Air Force Base, a U.S. military facility in Germany, and “make them available” to the U.S., the Pentagon rejected the proposal, saying it is not “sustainable”. a “.
However, senior Ukrainian officials have continued to demand that the United States and its allies provide fighter jets to the country. On Sunday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said warplanes were “the highest demand” and the “most urgent problem.”
“If we lose control of the sky, we can’t stop two things from happening: we can’t prevent Russian bombers from destroying[ing] our cities and killing civilians. And we can’t destroy the Russian columns heading to our big cities on the roads, “Kuleba said in a statement. interview with “Face the Nation”, when asked what kind of military equipment Ukraine needs from allies and partners. “To achieve these two purposes, we need more aircraft.”
Kuleba denounced last week the round trip on plans to give Ukrainian planes a “diplomatic mystery” reminiscent of a game of ping-pong.
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