U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and bipartisan Senate Ukraine Caucus, met with Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova and Members of the Ukrainian Parliament.
“[I met] with five members of the Rada, the parliament from Ukraine – all five of them moms, unfortunately for them, all the husbands and dads are back fighting. They were here fighting for their country with their legislative prowess. They were unified in their message and they were unanimous in their volume. They need lots of help and they need it now. In fact, yesterday would have been better. They were adamant. They were unified. They were strong. They have a sense of urgency about them. As one of the Members of Parliament said to us, ‘Freedom must be armed.’ She said ‘Be brave, be courageous, and be fast.’ That’s right. I think we are courageous. I think we are brave. But we’re not very fast and that’s been a problem,” said Senator Cramer.
They came to the U.S. Capitol to brief members of the Senate Ukraine Caucus on the latest regarding Russia’s unprovoked and unwarranted violent invasion of Ukraine and how else the U.S. Senate can support their nation. Ukrainian Parliament members in attendance included Lesia Zaburanna, Yevheniya Kravchuk, Anastasia Radina, and Maria Ionova. Polish Members of Parliament were also in attendance.
“They were unanimous first of all in wanting fighter jets. They believe it’s a game-changer. It allows them to protect the skies more adequately. But then second to that was more advanced artillery systems, weapon systems, particularly surface-to-air systems. They need medium-range and long-range missile defense systems and they were asking for those,” continued Senator Cramer.
“They were also asking for stricter sanctions. [There are] 333 banks in [Russia]. We have put sanctions on the grand total – between SWIFT and the other sanctions – of 13 banks. Of course [this] includes the top 10 banks, which makes up about 80% of the balance sheet. So it does hit the big banks that do most of the international banking, which has ramifications. The problem is as long as there are 320 banks standing, their concern is some of the finances, authority, and wherewithal to do business on the international stage can be transferred to those smaller banks. The thing they reminded us of is in Russia, the criminal makes one call and regulations are no longer a problem. That is not a luxury places like the United States and Ukraine have,” said Senator Cramer.
Senator Cramer also received a classified briefing on Vladimir Putin’s ongoing war in Ukraine.
“Later in the day after, I did participate in a classified briefing as well with the members of the State Department, the Defense Department, the intelligence community, and Treasury [Department]. We were able to get an update on exactly where some of the weapons systems are, how close they are to getting to the Ukrainians, and what the opportunities are as Russia withdraws from the Kyiv-area and repositions their troops in other areas. The fear I have – I think a lot of people have – is Vladimir Putin has the luxury of time. So if they wait long enough, the Ukrainians worry they’re going to run out of these systems that they need. And then eventually, they just get overwhelmed by Russia. The moment is now. I think a lot of Ukrainians see the United States as sort of slowing down defeat as opposed to arming them for victory. They’re in a position to be victorious. We need to take that very same posture as an ally and leader of the free world. We need to step up in a big way,” concluded Senator Cramer.
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