U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, delivered remarks at a press conference regarding Ukraine. This immediately follows Senator Cramer’s participation in the bipartisan congressional delegation (CODEL) trip to Kiev to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
On Ukraine:
“In the spirit of unity, let me agree with all of my colleagues to this point and just reiterate how strong the commitment is. While we certainly have some honest policy disagreements, particularly with regard to the Nord Stream 2 sanctions and the sequence, that should not be mistaken by Vladimir Putin or Russia as disunity in our resolve to stand with people of Ukraine and to stand with freedom.”
“The trip was fast, but intense. This morning’s briefing with the President was informative and instructive. At this point, the message is loud and clear: the United States stands as one in unity with the freedom-loving people of Ukraine and never wants a return to Vladimir Putin’s dream of reuniting Ukraine as part of the Russian empire.”
On Virtual Meeting with President Biden:
“I thought it was a very instructive and constructive discussion. I don’t think we surprised the President or Mr. Sullivan or anybody in the administration with what we said. Quite honestly, we listened as much as we spoke.
“[President Biden] listened attentively. He shared a lot as well. One of the challenges that’s come up many times, he has the additional burden of keeping NATO together. Right now there’s at least one outlier and while NATO’s united against a common adversary, they’re not all united at the same level of intensity. We want to be able to be as united as both the United States of America and United States Congress and with our NATO allies. It’s not quite as simple as a unilateral group of sanctions.”
On Sanctions Legislation:
“We want to have a strong bipartisan sanctions package. Melding existing legislation together, strengthening it from our standpoint, I think you can have an overwhelming vote. But if they choose to have a watered-down sanctions package, I don’t know how strong the vote will be. I want a big vote because that expresses unity.”
“Words are cheap. It’s time to demonstrate some action. We’re working on some things together and the president raises an important point, to be fair, sanctions are not a bilateral or unilateral thing. Even if it’s a unilateral sanction, it splashes over. It has a dynamic effect with our allies, our own exporters, so we have to be thoughtful about it. We have to be committed to it. We have to be clear about it.”
“There are members of both parties discussing that in relevant committees. I think passing something is better than passing nothing. I think passing Menendez’s bill instead of passing Rubio’s bill is not as good as passing Rubio’s bill. With that said… we ought to work on it now, we ought to work on it hard, we ought to work on it fast, and we ought to include everything. It’s got to be severe and it’s got to be broad-based. The sequence is a debatable issue. It’s a disagreement. I think we can strengthen some parts of it more like we like it and agree to some of the things Democrats want. But at the end of the day, I think we need to get to a package that is decisive and that is enough to be a deterrent to action.”
On Nord Stream 2:
“It never should have been built. It has handed Vladimir Putin leverage he should never have had. With that said, it is now a source of revenue for Vladimir Putin that if it is stopped, can still hurt. We need to be committed to that. We need Germany to say publicly that they’re committed to that.”
